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N-acetylcysteine as an adjunct treatment of schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

R. Mota Freitas  and
M.T. Valadas
R. Mota Freitas*
Affiliation:
Departamento De Psiquiatria E Saúde Mental, Hospital do Espírito Santo de Évora, Évora, Portugal
M.T. Valadas
Affiliation:
Serviço De Psiquiatria, Unidade Local de Saúde do Baixo Alentejo, Beja, Portugal
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

An increasing body of literature supports the hypothesis that immune imbalance towards a pro-inflammatory status in the brain plays an important role in schizophrenia. Anti-inflammatory drugs might compensate this dysregulation, ameliorating the symptoms of schizophrenia. N-acetylcysteine exhibits anti-inflammatory properties and may regulate various neurological pathways, including glutamate dysregulation, oxidative stress, and inflammation, becoming an interesting augmenting drug for schizophrenia treatment.

Objectives

We aim to review the literature regarding the therapeutic effects of N-acetylcysteine in Schizophrenia.

Methods

We performed an updated review in the PubMed database using the terms “N-acetylcysteine” and “Schizophrenia”. The included articles were selected by title and abstract.

Results

The literature suggests that N-acetylcysteine may be a useful adjunct to standard treatment for the improvement of schizophrenia symptoms, as well as the cognitive domain of working memory. Also, this augmentation therapy seems to be beneficial in all illness stages

Conclusions

N-acetylcysteine appears to be a promising agent for augmenting conventional pharmacotherapy in schizophrenia, however, further research is needed to consolidate the current findings.

Keywords

schizophréniaN-acetylcysteine
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S531
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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