Sarcosine Reduces Symptoms in Schizophrenia

DX'd - Other
251

This is an update from my earlier post in relation to my spouse.

Sarcosine was tried for approx 8 week and we met with failure. It triggered a psychotic break with hypomania symptoms, Hubby was/is on a carb rich/low protein diet without medications as prescribed by his MD in an effort to reduce weight gain caused by years of meds. He responded well to diet,but, when the sarcosine was added in the effects were minimal and increasing to the recommended dosage levels as in the study he went off the rails. The sarcosine was titered down to 1g with same effects and still no improvement. It is believed that he has what is called Serine Excess which is known to cause psychotic episodes when on the above mentioned diet with sarcosine/d-serine supplements. He will be tested for this in the coming days.

L-Lysine was met with similar failure after he withdrew the sarcosine. However, he will revisit the L-Lysine once he has stablised again. We are not ready to give up on this supplement as of yet.

NAC- Was discont. and later re-introduced within the last week when it was discovered that NAC can be altered during the 1st psychosis. Currently and based on the blood work, he is on appox 600 mgsx3 daily. Lowering polyunsaturated fats in foods will be key to the success or failure of NAC with him.

Pellagra-Vitamin B-3 def. Hubby was discovered to have pellagra co-morbid with def in Vitamins B1, B-2,B-6 and B-12. He is currently taking 3000 mgs daily of B-3 and if he goes down or off this supplement the results are noticeable. His doctor’s have said that the B-3 therapy for him will be a life long commitment. The rest of the B’s, he takes as directed in the mornings.

Gluten-We have begun removing gluten foods from the diet in an effort to see if this improves his symptoms. Because we live in the same household, I get to be gluten free too. Going gluten free will take some time as ALL gluten needs to be removed for this to have any noticed effect in his schizophrenia. And it will takes month as we cannot shock the system so to speak. It’s amazing where this stuff hides too.

He will be tested for the MTHFR mutation, Histadelia, Wilson’s Disease and Histapenia to rule out any medical causes.

L-Theanine-This seems to be our wonder drug for the moment as it calms the symptoms down and allows him to sleep through the night. He takes 1200 mgs 3x daily with meals.

Vitamin C-1500 mgs 3x daily with his B-3.
Fish oil-Krill(organic)-1000 mgs 3x daily
Selenium
Alpha Lipoic Acid-We have just upped his dose a bit to scrub his receptors a little more.

He will begin CB therapy as soon as he is stable again. He had to take his meds that he had on stand by in case of emergency. And he wasn’t happy about it because he was doing well for months without it. But, I know when he is getting “squirrely” and I can sweet talk him into doing so. He will remain on the Latuda for approx 2 weeks then titer down and off.

Goal still remains life without any meds whatsoever. He spent 20 years or so stable with meds so we are hopeful that he can have that without them.

I will keep you updated on the NAC.

Best
Raven

3 Likes
252

We are having him tested for a number of things. The meds, in and of themselves, are starting to fail him which is the reason why we have been on this course of alternative therapies.

253

Can L-Lysine or Glycine substitute for sarcosine? Asking because my local stores carry L-Lysine and Glycine, but not sarcosine.

What difference in effects would there be, too?

254

Glycine and sarcosine impact the same brain receptors - and sarcosine just gets converted in your body into glycine (very efficiently) so yes - you could use glycine instead of sarcosine. The issue is that I think you need to take about 60 grams a day of glycine for it to have an effect - and most people start getting upset stomachs when they consume that much glycine every day. You only need to take a few grams of sarcosine for (what the research says) is the same effect. That is why the research moved to sarcosine.

You can read more here:

I’ve also seen research, however that suggests that glycine decreased negative symptoms but increases positive symptoms. Here is that research:

"As adjuvants to non-clozapine antipsychotics, additional therapeutic
benefits were observed for NMDARM as a group and glycine for positive symptoms; D-serine, NAC and sarcosine for negative symptoms; and NMDARM as a group, D-serine, glycine, NAC and sarcosine for total symptoms.

When added to clozapine, none of the drugs demonstrated therapeutic potential, while addition of glycine (SMD +0.56) worsened positive symptoms.

From:
http://sci-hub.io/http://dx.doi.org/10.2165/11586650-000000000-00000

L-lysine is something that has also shown to help in schizophrenia - but I think its a possible add-on, not a replacement for sarcosine. Here is more about that:

1 Like
255

Did anyone have withdrawal symptoms if they stopped taking sarcosine?

I’ve been taking it for 1.5 months and I skipped it for one day (I wasn’t sleeping at home and didn’t bring it with me, I didn’t think it would matter).

Result is, I plunged into a mini-episode after a day. I got home and I took it again and things were well again 2 hours later.

So, it’s not true that it’s not addictive even though I’m reading that but I’d like to know if anyone else experienced withdrawal.

Otherwise, it does seem to work for me - it solved my symptoms and I feel completely normal with it, wow. This after years of struggling!

The only one side effect is I can sometimes trip into a bit of a rage. But it’s rare. I also had some weird dehydration during some nights with it but that’s stopped after a while after I reduced the dosage from the daily 2g to 1.5g, which fits my body weight better anyway.

1 Like
256

Btw the symptoms I started taking it for - I read that it fixes negative symptoms which is basically what I had a bit though not full schizophrenia. It works for that (could be just some sort of depression in my case, for which I read it may also work) but it also fixed my mood episodes, those episodes looked quite bipolar. They are gone. If I feel emotions they just feel normal, they don’t spill over into overactive thinking and then into episodes like they used to. Incredible.

257

When I first came to this forum, about a month and a half ago, I noticed this thread pinned to the top. I had no idea what sarcosine was and did not really think it would do anything for me. But I ordered some from BrainVitaminz about a month ago just to try it, but expected nothing. From the first day of taking it I noticed a difference in energy, and it has gotten a lot better since then. I take 1.5 grams in the morning, and 1gram in the afternoon, and it makes a huge difference for me in energy, motivation, and mood. I am so happy I found this stuff. I just thought I would add my experience with it to this thread, and thank everybody who added to this thread, especially @SzAdmin.

2 Likes
258

Sarcosine seem to be having a paradoxical effect on me and making me sleepy, especially after I take it. At first I seemed to get a boost in mental clarity so I may have to keep tinkering with the dosage. Right now I’m going to stop taking it for a while and see what happens.

259

I was wondering if any of the studies were done on children? My daughter just started Risperdone sounds like this might actually help her. Wondering if I should ask the dr. First

260

Given that childhood-onset schizophrenia is extremely rare (about 1 in 10,000 people if my memory serves me right) the short answer is no, and its unlikely it will be done on children.

Definitely discuss with your doctor first. We have a page here you can print out and share with him:

http://www.schizophrenia.com/glycinetreat.htm

261

Try augmenting with L-Theanine.

I agree with SzAdmin - you are describing a health-anxiety evaluation of adrenal functions. There is the possibility of a small increase in heart rate and blood pressure, but typically when anxiety symptoms are present, the mind is mostly to blame.

The most simple solution is to breathe more deeply and slowly. which naturally decrease Sympathetic tone (reduces adrenal activity). My favourite approach is to mindfully evacuate ALL of the air in my lungs with each out-breath, which triggers and perpetuates longer/deeper breathing cycles.

1 Like
262

I gried glycene, not sure if this is the same thing, but they recomended like a desert spoon per day, it may have helped but my blood sugar rose so high that my hair was falling out. So be careful what you try.

263

In Summary - it appears that Sarcosine’s benefits are not due to increasing the level of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BNDF).

CONCLUSIONS:
Our results indicate that either BDNF is not involved in the NMDA-dependent mechanism of sarcosine action or global changes in BDNF concentrations induced by amino-acid cannot be detected in blood assessments.**

More info:

Source:

264

Hello. Husband wants to try sarocosine but it states that it is not effective with patients on Clozapine, which is what he is currently taking. Any advise would be appreciated. Thank you.

265

Thank you so much for your post! You have given me the boost I needed. I have been married to husband with sz for 30 yrs and wanted to give up. He is currently on clozapine which has been helpful but has many side effects. He wants to try sarcosine with the Clozapine. I am not sure if this is the route to go as it states it is not effective with his type of meds but there are individuals on here taking Clozapine and sarcosine with good results. We r hopeful. Thanks again for your uplifting posts.

266

Hi,
I just joined this website, after reading all about Sarcosine the other night… wow, I sure hope it can help my 26 year old daughter with her schizophrenia. I read all about the negative interaction Clozapin (sp?), which my daughter does not take. I then decided to read a study and one of her medications was mentioned, in a case study.
My question that I would appreciate an answer to is… Is it safe to take Sarcosine with Quetiapine Famarate ( generic for Seroquel) and Lamotrigine ( generic for Lamictal)? She occasionally takes Lorazepam (generic for Ativan), as needed, when she is having a bad episode.

I am so happy to have found this forum for Sz.
Thanks in advance for a reply.

1 Like
267

who wants my sarcosine i have 30mg of it i dont use it lol

1 Like
268

I just wanted to add to this thread that if you are on prilosec, or another heartburn medication, it may mess up the absorption of sarcosine. I took sarcosine and had great results for months until I started using prilosec for heartburn. After a little while sarcosine just stopped working and I could not figure out why. I was on prilosec for three months and tried taking sarcosine multiple times when I was on it and it did absolutely nothing. I quit prilosec about a week ago and started taking sarocosine again am having amazing results again.

269

Thank you so much for the information will try.

270

Prepaids are great. Do you live in the US or canada?