If it works in people, how long will it be available as a cheap over the counter drug, I wonder.
It has been proposed as an additional therapy for schizophrenia (not a replacement for antipsychotics) because of its effects on myelin.
Based on the literature reviewed here, there are WM deficits that correlate with treatment resistance in schizophrenia. While other mechanisms of pharmacoresistance are still possible for any particular patient, if we consider WM as a target for therapy, there are options that are in development for human use. In fact, myelin enhancing strategies have been under investigation in human subjects for many years as effective treatments for multiple sclerosis are sought. Thus, repurposing and investigating these approved therapeutics currently in use for other medical conditions for treatment resistant patients is a reasonable approach. More specifically, putative myelinenhancing therapies would be potential candidates for large-scale clinical trials in schizophrenia. These include myelin-enhancing agents such as n-3 PUFA, minocycline , clemastine, polyphenols and potential neuro/myeloreparative agents such as sulfasalazine, nano-curcumin, stem cell enhancing therapies such as Gli-1 inhibitors, immunodmodulators such as fingolimod, olexosime and retinoid receptor activators such as pioglitazone.
@jeroenp this might be something to ask your doctor about, as it is cheap, readily available, (at least in the US) and safe.
Clemastine is particularly interesting as a possible treatment for treatment refractory schizophrenia as not only does it enhance oligodendrocyte progenitor differentiation but it also causes epigenetic changes which may be important in the overall disease course (Liu et al., 2016).
I’m in a Clemastine trial since 3 weeks (starting with 1.2 and now 5 mg, will be increased to 10 mg), which will last at least 90 days, and I think I have experienced some small cognitive improvements.
sorry I apologize i can’t go on like this anymore depressed, my doc nows and wants me to try minocycline again a drug that works after 3 days but has some nasty effects
I hope you can find something with low side effects that will work.
I’m thinking about clemastine as well since it seems like with its mechanism of action (white matter protection/myelin) it might only help a little at first but more over months and years. That’s speculative on my part, of course, because it hasn’t been studied enough. However I do have allergies and I have taken it periodically before, so I know it doesn’t have serious side effects for me.