Improving Therapeutic Interventions of Schizophrenia with Advances in Stem Cell Technology

Although historic documents posit schizophrenia to the beginnings of mankind, its diagnosis remains poorly defined, currently relying on unspecific clinical symptoms; and controversies still maintain its origin under intense debate. This review aimed at quantitatively assessing the preferential forefronts of clinical trials towards the treatment of schizophrenia from inception till present, according to clinicaltrials.gov database registry. Towards that end study status and study phase classifications were used as criteria for progress in the field. Study groups by sex and age together with countries and organisms involved in the studies were used as indicators of the populations studied and as evidence of main promoter institutions, in both, pharmacological and drug-free protocols. The findings clearly show a decline of active clinical research with small synthetic compounds and limited numbers of novel initiatives, mostly based on drug-free alternatives with expected reduced secondary effects. A paucity of sex- and age-oriented designs is detected, and it is proposed that future clinical trials should set their basis on data obtained from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells, brain organoid systems and human brain circuitry platforms. Only individual precision medical approaches may turn effective for the treatment of this complex and highly incapacitating disease.