Schjerning O, et al. - This randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study examined the use of pregabalin for anxiety in patients with schizophrenia. In the treatment of psychic anxiety symptoms, pregabalin could be effective in patients with schizophrenia with a medium effect size, although no effect was found on overall HAM-A₁₄.

• The researchers randomized patients to either placebo or pregabalin (≤600 mg/d) as add-on treatment.
• In this study, primary analyses were intention-to-treat based with change in Hamilton Anxiety Scale after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment as primary outcome.
• Change in psychopathology, quality-of-life, cognitive functioning and sleep were included as secondary outcomes.
• Centralized raters were used to increase accuracy and minimize baseline inflation.

• The researchers included 54 patients.
• Out of them, 46 completed the study.
• Compared to placebo, pregabalin reduced the HAM-A₆ score significantly and with a medium effect size 0.72 (p = 0.01).
• There were no significant between-group difference for the overall HAM-A₁₄.
• Weight gain, dizziness, sedation and increased duration of sleep were the most common side-effects.