Is this Sarcosine a scam?

77nick77 · August 22, 2015, 10:12am

Does it REALLY help? Can you really tell a difference if you take it? Does it work for everybody?

everhopeful · August 22, 2015, 10:15am

I wouldn’t call it a scam, there’s some research behind it, but people reporting back here seem fairly lukewarm about it unfortunately. I haven’t tried it.

anon58900831 · August 22, 2015, 12:29pm

I ordered it last week and received it quickly. I will try it and let everyone know if I see any difference.

lovemyson · August 22, 2015, 8:34pm

My son just started on it today. My husband and I did too:)

I will also post updates.

notmoses · August 22, 2015, 8:38pm

It’s evidently not a panacea. For those whose genetics and epigenetics are "“right” for it, yes. For those who don’t have those genetics or epigenetics, less so or not at all.

anon69629779 · August 22, 2015, 8:44pm

I ordered profrontal, hope this ■■■■ works

notmoses · August 22, 2015, 8:47pm

Give it a shot. I don’t think the stuff can hurt you. And tell us what happens.

anon51846395 · August 22, 2015, 8:50pm

just got mine in the mail, ill wait a few weeks to see how it goes then report back here

crimby · August 22, 2015, 8:56pm

It’s really hard for me to say if it’s working because my activity patterns are so erratic. One day I forgot to take it and it seemed like I had a bad morning, but that could have been because I am moody.

anon51846395 · August 22, 2015, 9:01pm

it says on the bottle to take one pill of each substance twice a day, did you eventually up it to 2 of each twice a day, for 8 total?

crimby · August 22, 2015, 9:05pm

What I take is in powder form. They give you a little scoop that measures I gram. I take 3 grams a day, all in the morning. I can’t afford to take more. I get my Sarcosine from BrainVitamenz.

anon79999497 · August 22, 2015, 9:08pm

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Two grams of sarcosine in schizophrenia - is it too much? A potential role of glutamate-serotonin interaction.

D Strzelecki, J Szyburska and J Rabe-Jabłońska, Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 2014

Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Dysfunction of the glutamatergic system plays an important role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Therefore, glutamatergic agents such as N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor co-agonists (ie, glycine, D-cycloserine) and glycine transporter type 1 inhibitors (eg, sarcosine) are studied for their efficacy in ameliorating negative and cognitive symptomatology in patients with schizophrenia. We report the case of a 23-year-old schizophrenic patient treated with quetiapine and citalopram, who was offered concomitant sarcosine treatment. After obtaining an informed consent, we started administration of 2 g of sarcosine per day to treat persistent negative and cognitive symptoms. The patient's activity and mood improved within 2 weeks, but in the following 2 weeks the patient reported increased drive, activity, libido, unpleasant inner tension, and irritability. We ruled out hypomania and decided to decrease the daily dose of sarcosine to 1 g, which resulted in reduction of drive and irritability. Activity and mood improved compared with his state before adding sarcosine. We suggest a sarcosine dose between 1 g and 2 g per day with an initial dose of 2 g, but if side effects occur, the dose should be decreased to 1 g per day. We would like to emphasize the clinically important glutamate-serotonin interaction during concomitant use of sarcosine, citalopram, and quetiapine in our patient, which may lead to serious discomfort.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Hypomania after augmenting venlafaxine and olanzapine with sarcosine in a patient with schizophrenia: a case study.

D Strzelecki, J Szyburska, M Kotlicka-Antczak and O Kałużyńska, Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 2015

Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Dysfunction of the glutamatergic system plays an important and well-established role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Agents with glutamatergic properties such as N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor coagonists (ie, glycine, D-cycloserine) and glycine transporter type 1 inhibitors (eg, sarcosine, bitopertin) are investigated in schizophrenia with special focus on negative and cognitive symptomatology. In this article, we describe a case of a 34-year-old woman with diagnosis of schizophrenia with persistent moderate negative and cognitive symptoms, a participant of the Polish Sarcosine Study (PULSAR) treated with olanzapine (25 mg per day) and venlafaxine (75 mg per day). During ten weeks of sarcosine administration (2 g per day) the patient's activity and mood improved, but in the following 2 weeks, the patient reported decreased need for sleep, elevated mood, libido and general activity. We diagnosed drug-induced hypomania and recommended decreasing the daily dose of venlafaxine to 37.5 mg per day, which resulted in normalization of mood and activity in about 1 week. After this change, activity and mood remained stable and better than before adding sarcosine, and subsequent depressive symptoms were not noted. We describe here the second case report where sarcosine induced important affect changes when added to antidepressive and antipsychotic treatment, which supports the hypothesis of clinically important glutamate-serotonin interaction.

77nick77 · August 23, 2015, 1:25am

Thanks all…

SzAdmin · August 23, 2015, 4:09am

I recommend you read up on it here:

Stefan · August 23, 2015, 6:57pm

Why not N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid?

insidemind · August 23, 2015, 7:39pm

I’ve been taking Sarcosine and NAC for about two months. It works but barely. I feel like NAC is more effective to be honest. Is it worth the price? Not in my opinion. And the ads on this website are misleading to say the least. But I understand the need for ad revenue and I enjoy this site.

Needless to say, I won’t be spending $50 a month at ProFrontal or anywhere else. No way near a 30% drop in negative symptoms as recorded in the linked studies here. Too bad, in my opinion.

anon58900831 · August 23, 2015, 10:25pm

oh that’s horrible. I was hoping I would see some improvement. I’m starting it next week. I will monitor it closely though.

anon69629779 · August 23, 2015, 10:30pm

I’m starting it too waterway!

SzAdmin · August 23, 2015, 10:42pm

I have not seen any evidence that this helps in schizophrenia. Have you seen some good scientific evidence of it helping in schiz? If so - please post links to the research.

Stefan · August 24, 2015, 10:17am

Its a nmda receptor agonist which may have a negativ impact. To much and its neurotoxic… N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid has slightly improved my sleep and it did so a bit more effectively than glycine. Bodybuilders use it to boost testerone etc…