LLO Sanders, CE de Souza Menezes, AJM Chaves Filho, G de Almeida Viana, FV Fechine, MG Rodrigues de Queiroz, S Gonçalvez da Cruz Fonseca, SM Mendes Vasconcelos, ME Amaral de Moraes, CS Gama, S Seybolt, E de Moura Campos, D Macêdo and D Freitas de Lucena,
Journal of clinical psychopharmacology, Dec 2017
Accumulating evidence suggests an involvement of oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. This offers a hypothesis-derived therapeutic approach to hinder oxidative damage and its clinical sequelae. α-Lipoic acid (ALA) is a powerful natural antioxidant indicated to treat diabetic neuropathy.In this pilot investigation, we administered ALA (100 mg/d) for 4 months, as an adjunct to antipsychotic medication, to 10 patients with schizophrenia.We found robust improvement in measures of psychopathology (63.9% reduction in Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale scores), neurocognitive parameters, extrapyramidal symptoms, and decreased lipid peroxidation.If larger, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies confirm these preliminary findings, ALA could prove useful as adjunctive therapy for schizophrenia.