treatment-responsiveness of negative symptoms in schizophrenia: a double-blind placebo-control clinical trial

background: the negative symptoms of schizophrenia remain a major clinical challenge. nortriptyline is a serotonin and noradrenalin reuptake inhibitor and belongs to secondary amine tricycles. the aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of nortriptyline on the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.   methods: this study is a six-week randomized placebo-control trial of nortriptyline or placebo as an adjunctive to haloperidol (5 mg) in the treatment of 50 patients with diagnostic and statistical manual for mental disorders (dsm-iv) criteria for chronic schizophrenia.   result: the primary finding of the trial was a significant reduction in scale for assessment of negative symptoms (sans) in the nortriptyline group compared to placebo at the end of 6 week. all the subscales of sans demonstrate significant improvement.   conclusion: this study suggests a potential role for nortriptyline in the treatment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. iran j med sci 2006; 31(3): 135-138.   keywords ● schizophrenia ● negative symptom ● nortriptyline