The Treatment Units for Research on Neurocognition and Schizophrenia (TURNS) is a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) supported network of research units/sites that will provide an infrastructure for clinical studies of pharmacological agents for enhancing neurocognition in schizophrenia. The work of TURNS will include identification of promising potential precognitive therapeutic agents, general safety profile, drug-drug interactions, efficacy (particularly early proof of concept), dose ranges, dose regimen, pharmacokinetics, and effect on other dimensions of symptomatic and behavioral disturbance in patients with schizophrenia. Additionally, the TURNS will promote the validation of specific measures of cognition in schizophrenia for use as endpoints in clinical trials and refine methodological approaches for determining the efficacy of compounds for this indication.
