Trial reportSchizophrenia bulletin2013
Antiherpes virus-specific treatment and cognition in schizophrenia: a test-of-concept randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial.
Trial report in Schizophrenia bulletin, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Herpes simplex virus pUL56 abolishes neuronal activity by removing voltage-gated ion channels from the plasma membrane.Science advances · 2026Article
- Pharmacological and Mechanistic Interventions for Cognitive Impairment Associated With Schizophrenia: A Review of Registered Clinical Trials.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2026Review
- Valacyclovir Mitigates Amyloid Plaque Deposition, P-Tau Aggregation, and Neuroinflammation in Streptozotocin induced Alzheimer's Disease Rat Model.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Article
- Unravelling the Viral Hypothesis of Schizophrenia: A Comprehensive Review of Mechanisms and Evidence.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Unveiling the Involvement of Herpes Simplex Virus-1 in Alzheimer's Disease: Possible Mechanisms and Therapeutic Implications.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Review
- Involvement of virus infections and antiviral agents in schizophrenia.Psychological medicine · 2025Review
- Bibliometric and Visual Analysis of Alzheimer's Disease and Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Infection Between 1990 and 2024.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2025Article
- Pharmacological management of neurocognitive impairment in schizophrenia: A narrative review.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2024Review
- DNA from multiple viral species is associated with Alzheimer's disease risk.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Article
- Herpesvirus Infections in the Human Brain: A Neural Cell Model of the Complement System Derived from Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2023Article
- Therapeutic Implications of the Microbial Hypothesis of Mental Illness.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2023Review
- Back to the Future: The Role of Infections in Psychopathology. Focus on OCD.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2022Article
- Infectious agents as risk factors for psychosis - A time to reconsider and reinvigorate investigations.Schizophrenia research · 2021Article
- The Use of Antimicrobial and Antiviral Drugs in Alzheimer's Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Article
- Association of the Promoter Haplotype of IFN-γ-Inducible Protein 16 Gene with Schizophrenia in a Korean Population.Psychiatry investigation · 2020Article
- Herpes Simplex Virus Type-1 Infection: Associations with Inflammation and Cognitive Aging in Relation to Schizophrenia.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2020Review
- Infection with Herpes Simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and sleep: The dog that did not bark.Psychiatry research · 2019Article
- Antibodies in the Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Prediction of Psychotic Disorders.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2019Review
- Viral Hypothesis and Antiviral Treatment in Alzheimer's Disease.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo test our hypothesis that valacyclovir, an antiherpes virus-specific medication, added to antipsychotics (APs) would improve cognitive performance and psychopathology among schizophrenia subjects exposed to neurotropic herpes simplex virus, type 1 (HSV1).
methodsUsing a double-blind placebo-controlled design, we randomized 24 HSV1-seropositive schizophrenia subjects to receive either valacyclovir (n = 12) or placebo (n = 12) for 18 weeks in addition to stable doses of APs. Valacyclovir dose was stabilized at 1.5 g twice daily orally. At each visit, subjects were evaluated for severity of psychopathology and side effects using standardized scales and a study-specific semistructured checklist. A computerized neurocognitive battery validated on both schizophrenia and healthy subjects was administered at baseline and follow-up. Intent-to-treat analysis, using linear regression models that included all randomized subjects, were used to examine differential changes in cognition and psychopathology scores over 18 weeks between valacyclovir and placebo, accounting for placebo response.
resultsValacyclovir group improved in verbal memory, working memory, and visual object learning compared with placebo group. The effect sizes (Cohen's d) were 0.79 for working memory, 1.14 for immediate verbal memory, and 0.97 for the visual object learning. Psychotic symptom severity did not improve.
conclusionsSupplemental valacyclovir may alleviate impairments in cognitive domains that are often observed in schizophrenia but not psychotic symptoms in those exposed to HSV1. If replicated, this approach could provide a novel strategy to treat cognitive impairments in a subgroup of schizophrenia subjects who can be reliably identified using a blood test.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.