UCLA

The US National Institute of Mental Health supported an initiative to facilitate the development of pharmacological agents for enhancing neurocognition in patients with schizophrenia. This has been accomplished through a consensus-building process that has included representatives from academia, the pharmaceutical industry, and government. The group has addressed obstacles to drug development that include (i) the lack of a well-accepted instrument for measuring neurocognition in clinical trials; (ii) the lack of a consensus on the best molecular target or targets for drug development; (iii) the lack of a consensus regarding the optimal trial design for either comedication that improves cognition when added to an antipsychotic or a broad spectrum agent that improves cognition and treats psychosis; and (iv) the approaches of regulatory agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration to approving and labeling a new agent.