Effects of 12-month, double-blind N-acetyl cysteine on symptoms, cognition and brain morphology in early phase schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Schizophrenia Research — | March 28, 2018

Breier A, et al. – Given that N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) mitigates the deleterious effects oxidative stress, inflammation and glutamatergic excitotoxicity (the three pathological processes hypothesized to contribute to progressive brain mass loss (PBML) consistently observed in early phase schizophrenia), researchers assessed the effects NAC (3600 mg/day) in a 52-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial on symptoms, and cognition in early phase schizophrenia spectrum disorders. NAC led to significant improvement (time × group) in PANSS total, negative and disorganized thought symptom scores. PANSS positive symptoms and BACS cognitive scores were not improved with NAC. Preliminary results here suggest that NAC’s symptom effects could be related to structural integrity, but NAC failed to demonstrate treatment effects on longitudinal measures of brain morphology.

Read the full article on Schizophrenia Research