Novel Treatment for the hardest-to-treat Schizophrenia: Dual Activation of NMDA Receptor and Antioxidant

twinklestars · October 30, 2019, 8:11pm

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Novel Treatment for the hardest-to-treat Schizophrenia: Dual Activation of NMDA Receptor and Antioxidant.

CH Lin, YM Chen and HY Lane, Current drug targets, Oct 2019 11

Clozapine has been regarded as the last-line antipsychotic agent for patients with refractory schizophrenia. However, many patients remain unresponsive to clozapine, referred to as "clozapine-resistant", "ultra-treatment-resistant", or "hardest-to-treat". There has been no convincing evidence for augmentation on clozapine so far. Novel treatments including numerous N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor (NMDAR) enhancers such as glycine, D-serine, D-cycloserine, and N-methylglycine (sarcosine) failed in clinical trials. Earlier, Inhibition of D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) that may metabolize D-amino acids and thereby activate NMDAR has been reported to be beneficial for patients with schizophrenia receiving antipsychotics except clozapine. A recent randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial found that add-on sodium benzoate, a DAAO inhibitor, improved the clinical symptoms in patients with clozapine-resistant schizophrenia, possibly through DAAO inhibition (and thereby NMDAR activation) and antioxidation as well; additionally, sodium benzoate showed no obvious side effects, indicating the treatment is safe at the doses up to 2 g per day for 6 weeks. More studies are warranted to elucidate the mechanisms of sodium benzoate for the treatment of schizophrenia and thereby the etiology of this severe brain disease. If the finding can be reconfirmed, this approach may bring new hope for the treatment of the most refractory schizophrenia. This review summarizes current status of clinical trials and related mechanisms for treatment-resistant, especially, clozapine-resistant schizophrenia. We will also highlight the importance of understanding the molecular circuit switches that can restore brain function in patients with schizophrenia and discuss future directions in developing better treatments for the hardest-to-treat schizophrenia.

insidemind · October 30, 2019, 8:23pm

Damn. I wonder if I’m ultra resistant too. I took sodium benzoate and it helped but I get scared about cancer. Things seem to have diminished returns with me.

twinklestars · October 30, 2019, 8:39pm

It’s unlikely that sodium benzoate causes cancer.

I think what you are talking about is the creation of benzene under storage conditions with ascorbic acid. So, don’t mix your sodium benzoate with orange juice (or anything else really) and then let it sit on a shelf for a few days.

I probably wouldn’t take it together with something containing ascorbic acid at the same time out of an abundance of caution, but I wouldn’t worry about taking both at separate times.

far_cry0 · October 31, 2019, 10:58am

I think treatment resistant should go to brain stimulation therapy…!!!

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Novel Treatment for the hardest-to-treat Schizophrenia: Dual Activation of NMDA Receptor and Antioxidant

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