Journal article
N-acetylcysteine add-on treatment leads to an improvement of fornix white matter integrity in early psychosis: a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial
Paul Klauser, Lijing Xin, Margot Fournier, Alessandra Griffa, Martine Cleusix, Raoul Jenni, Michel Cuenod, Rolf Gruetter, Patric Hagmann, Philippe Conus, Philipp S Baumann, Kim Q Do
Translational Psychiatry | Nature Publishing Group | Published : 2018
Abstract
Mechanism-based treatments for schizophrenia are needed, and increasing evidence suggests that oxidative stress may be a target. Previous research has shown that N-acetylcysteine (NAC), an antioxidant and glutathione (GSH) precursor almost devoid of side effects, improved negative symptoms, decreased the side effects of antipsychotics, and improved mismatch negativity and local neural synchronization in chronic schizophrenia. In a recent double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial by Conus et al., early psychosis patients received NAC add-on therapy (2700 mg/day) for 6 months. Compared with placebo-treated controls, NAC patients showed significant improvements in neurocognition (process..
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Awarded by Swiss National Science Foundation
Awarded by National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) "SYNAPSY - The Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases" - Swiss National Science Foundation
Awarded by Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
Funding Acknowledgements
We express our gratitude to all patients for their continued participation. This work was supported by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation (320030_122419 to P.C. and K.Q.D., 310030_156874 to P.H.) and by the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) "SYNAPSY - The Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases", financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (no. 51AU40_125759). P.S.B. is financially supported by the Leenaards Foundation. P.K. is financially supported by the Adrian and Simone Frutiger Foundation. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy was performed at the Centre d'Imagerie BioMedicale (CIBM) of the UNIL, UNIGE, HUG, CHUV, EPFL. We are grateful for the support we received from the Damm-Etienne Foundation, the Alamaya Foundation and Banque Lombard Odier & Cie SA. We thank Bioadvantex Pharma, Inc., for providing NAC and placebo.