Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 5, 2025

Development of a Virtual Reality Assessment of Everyday Living Skills
Published on: April 23, 2014
The Impact of Xanomeline and Trospium Chloride on Cognitive Impairment in Acute Schizophrenia: Replication in Pooled
William P Horan1, Colin Sauder1, Philip D Harvey1
1Bristol Myers Squibb, Boston (Horan, Sauder, Ramsay, Yohn, Paul, Brannan); University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami (Harvey); Duke University School of Medicine, Durham (Keefe); Statistical Consultant, Chapel Hill (Davis).
Objective:
Xanomeline and trospium chloride (formerly known as KarXT), a novel M1/M4 muscarinic receptor agonist, demonstrated efficacy across phase 2 and 3 trials as monotherapy for the treatment of inpatients with acute schizophrenia on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale total score primary endpoint. In the phase 2 trial, xanomeline/trospium improved performance on a cognitive outcome measure in the subgroup of participants with clinically significant baseline cognitive impairment. The authors sought to confirm this finding using data from two phase 3 trials.
Methods:
Data were pooled from two 5-week inpatient trials of xanomeline/trospium monotherapy in patients with acute schizophrenia. The statistical analysis plan prespecified comparisons of cognitive composite score changes between xanomeline/trospium and placebo in the full sample and the cognitively impaired (≤1 SD below norms at baseline) subgroup.
Results:
There was no significant xanomeline/trospium effect in the full sample (N=357); however, in the impaired subgroup, xanomeline/trospium (N=71) had a significantly greater benefit for cognition compared with placebo (N=66; least squares mean difference=0.31, SE=0.10; d=0.54). The xanomeline/trospium effect size increased significantly with a more stringent baseline impairment threshold (≤-1.5 SD; d=0.80). Improvements in cognition were minimally correlated with concurrent changes in total, positive, and negative symptoms in both treatment groups.
Conclusions:
Participants with acute schizophrenia with prespecified impairments demonstrated significant cognitive improvement with xanomeline/trospium compared with placebo. This result directly confirms earlier findings. This benefit is not attributable to changes in symptoms, despite substantial evidence of efficacy for psychosis. Evaluation of xanomeline/trospium's potential for cognitive enhancement in a well-controlled trial of stable patients with cognitive impairment is warranted.
More Related Videos
07:02A Computerized Test Battery to Study Pharmacodynamic Effects on the Central Nervous System of Cholinergic Drugs in Early Phase Drug Development
Published on: February 11, 2019
06:22A Pilot Study on the Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Aβ and Tau Levels in Rhesus Monkey Cerebrospinal Fluid
Published on: September 3, 2021
Related Concept Videos
Cognitive Enhancers: Cholinesterase Inhibitors and NMDA Receptor Antagonists
Alzheimer's Disease: Treatment
Drug Therapy
Antianxiety Medications
Psychosis: Goals of Pharmacotherapy
Antidepressant Drugs: MAOIs and Other Agents
Sedatives and Hypnotics Drugs: Miscellaneous Agents
Melatonin congeners like ramelteon (Rozerem) and tasimelteon (Hetlioz) selectively bind to melatonin receptors (MT1 and MT2) and thus mimic the actions of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles. Tasimelteon is primarily used for non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder, common in blind patients. They are also used to treat conditions like insomnia...