Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Send correspondence to: Alex S. Cohen, Ph. Keywords: schizophrenia, negative, computer, galantamine, oxytocin, acoustic, prosody. Both medications are associated with mild side effect profiles Hansen et al. Unfortunately, data from the CIDAR trial failed to find significant improvements in negative symptom severity or cognitive functioning with either galantamine or oxytocin compared to placebo using standard clinical rating scales or neuropsychological test batteries Buchanan et al.
The present study reanalyzed these data using computerized measures of natural speech and facial expressions as the dependent variables; measures with potentially superior reliability, sensitivity and precision than clinical rating scales for measuring blunted affect and alogia Cohen and Elvevag, ; Cohen et al. Participants in the study met criteria for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder as confirmed by structured clinical interview and a were between 18 and 64 years old, b were rated at moderate negative symptom severity or greater using a modified Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms Buchanan et al.
Fifty participants were included in the original study. Due to technical issues with audio or video recordings, data were available for 40 participants 15 Placebo; 10 oxytocin; 15 galantamine. Vocal and facial expression was analyzed from a modified version of the Maryland Assessment of Social Competence Bellack et al. Data were averaged across the two situations. Assessments were administered at baseline and then repeated six weeks later. Summary variables, selected based on recent studies Cohen et al.
Treatment differences in average recording time and percentage of video frames analyzed by FaceReader also were also not statistically significant. In our main analyses, no statistically significant condition, treatment or interaction effects were noted for any of the six computerized measures.
Interestingly, participants in the oxytocin arm showed a non-statistically significant increase in negative facial expressions pre- to post-treatment at a medium effect size level, compared to a negligible increase in the placebo and galantamine arms. Consistent with data from symptom rating scales reported elsewhere from this medication trial Buchanan et al.
