Shrek
May 18, 2017, 5:08pm
1
After the infusion of sodium nitroprusside, a rapid (within 4 hours) improvement of symptoms was observed. The placebo and experimental groups had significant differences in the 18-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale total score and subscale scores, which persisted for 4 weeks after infusion.
CONCLUSIONS:
The results clearly show a therapeutic effect of sodium nitroprusside. If this drug is approved for routine clinical use in patients with schizophrenia, this discovery will be an important advance in the pharmacologic treatment of this devastating disorder.
JE Hallak, JP Maia-de-Oliveira, J Abrao, PR Evora, AW Zuardi, JA Crippa, P Belmonte-de-Abreu, GB Baker and SM Dursun,
JAMA psychiatry , Jul 2013
The treatment of schizophrenia remains a challenge, and the currently available antipsychotic drugs are slow acting and produce a number of adverse effects.To examine the effectiveness and safety of a single intravenous administration of sodium nitroprusside (0.5 μg/kg/min for 4 hours) on the positive, negative, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia.Single-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial performed from March 9, 2007, to March 12, 2009.University teaching hospital in São Paulo, Brazil.Twenty inpatients aged 19 to 40 years with a diagnosis of schizophrenia who were in the first 5 years of the disease who are taking antipsychotics.Sodium nitroprusside administration.The 18-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the negative subscale of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale.After the infusion of sodium nitroprusside, a rapid (within 4 hours) improvement of symptoms was observed. The placebo and experimental groups had significant differences in the 18-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale total score and subscale scores, which persisted for 4 weeks after infusion.The results clearly show a therapeutic effect of sodium nitroprusside. If this drug is approved for routine clinical use in patients with schizophrenia, this discovery will be an important advance in the pharmacologic treatment of this devastating disorder.clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01548612.
More info:
Sodium nitroprusside (SNP), sold under the brand name Nitropress among others, is a medication used to lower blood pressure. This may be done if the blood pressure is very high and resulting in symptoms, in certain types of heart failure, and during surgery to decrease bleeding. It is used by continuous injection into a vein. Onset is typically immediate and effects last for up to ten minutes. Common side effects include low blood pressure and cyanide toxicity. Other serious side effects include ...
2 Likes
It didn’t work in followup studies.
They dind’t say anything about cognitive improvements…
Shrek
May 18, 2017, 5:12pm
4
These findings in rats, which have an even faster metabolic rate than humans, suggest that the long-lasting effects observed in our clinical trial with SNP in humans could have been due to SNP itself
JP Maia-de-Oliveira, B Lobão-Soares, T Ramalho, EC Gavioli, VP Soares, L Teixeira, GB Baker, SM Dursun and JE Hallak,
Schizophrenia research , Mar 2015
Recently, we found a rapid and long-lasting improvement of symptoms in schizophrenic patients on antipsychotics after a single four-hour infusion of sodium nitroprusside (SNP), a nitric oxide (NO) donor with a short half-life. This improvement persisted for up to 4weeks. Because these patients remained on antipsychotics after infusion of SNP was finished, the question arises about whether this improvement was due to SNP itself. We have now investigated whether SNP, alone, can produce preventive antipsychotic effects in rats treated with ketamine (KET). 56 adult rats divided into 7 groups were infused with SNP 4mg/kg, KET 25mg/kg, or saline as follows: group1 - saline, group2 - SNP, group3 - KET, group4 - KET 12h after SNP, group5 - KET 1day after SNP, group6 - KET 2days after SNP, and group7 - KET 1week after SNP. The animals were filmed in an open field arena for 30min and the videos were later analyzed by ANY-Maze software to measure activity and stereotypy. SNP significantly prevented the emergence of hyperactivity induced by KET when it was administered for up to 1week before KET, and prevented the emergence of stereotypies when it was administered for up to 1day before KET. These findings in rats, which have an even faster metabolic rate than humans, suggest that the long-lasting effects observed in our clinical trial with SNP in humans could have been due to SNP itself, and indicate for the first time that SNP may present preventive antipsychotic effects.
what I dislike here is that this study is from 2013.
You would have thought that if it were a breakthrough it would already go into use today.
Does it help specifically with cognition?
Thanks for posting @Shrek anything that might help us is good.
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Shrek
May 18, 2017, 5:15pm
9
The nitric oxide donor sodium nitroprusside attenuates recognition memory deficits and social withdrawal produced by the NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine and induces anxiolytic-like behaviour in rats.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26685991/?i=5&from=nitroprusside%20schizophrenia
Its interesting - its already sold and used for blood pressure treatment:
Sodium nitroprusside (SNP), sold under the brand name Nitropress among others, is a medication used to lower blood pressure. This may be done if the blood pressure is very high and resulting in symptoms, in certain types of heart failure, and during surgery to decrease bleeding. It is used by continuous injection into a vein. Onset is typically immediate and effects last for up to ten minutes. Common side effects include low blood pressure and cyanide toxicity. Other serious side effects include ...
@y76 are you willing to about your medication regime?
1 Like