Food Preservative Enhances Schizophrenia Treatment

Summary: Sodium benzoate, a widely used food preservative, can help to improve negative symptoms, such as lack of empathy and motivation in those with schizophrenia when coupled with clozapine, researchers report.

Source: Elsevier.

The common food preservative sodium benzoate improves symptoms in clozapine-resistant schizophrenia patients, according to a new study published in Biological Psychiatry. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial led by Hsien-Yuan Lane, M.D., Ph.D., of China Medical University, Taiwan, showed that adding on sodium benzoate to the antipsychotic clozapine improved symptoms in patients who did not see results with any other medications, providing a new option for the hardest-to-treat patients.

“Clozapine is considered the last-line antipsychotic agent for patients with refractory schizophrenia,” said Dr. Lane, referring to patients whose symptoms do not respond to available antipsychotics. But an estimated 40-70 percent of patients with refractory schizophrenia fail to improve even with clozapine, referred to as “clozapine-resistant”, exhausting all potential options for treatment. The new study is the first to demonstrate that sodium benzoate–which has been shown to enhance other antipsychotic drugs–works in clozapine-resistant patients.

“If the finding can be confirmed, this approach may bring hope for treating patients with the most refractory schizophrenia,” said Dr. Lane.

The 60 patients with schizophrenia included in the study were all taking clozapine, and received a placebo or sodium benzoate as an add-on treatment for six weeks. First author Chieh-Hsin Lin, M.D., Ph.D., of Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taiwan, and colleagues tested two different doses of sodium benzoate (1 or 2 grams per day) to find which offered the biggest impact on symptoms with minimal side effects.

Compared with the placebo, sodium benzoate improved negative symptoms, such as lack of emotion and motivation, which have a greater influence on a patient’s functional outcome than the more prominent psychotic symptoms. The higher dose of sodium benzoate also improved ratings of overall symptoms and quality of life. Although sodium benzoate has improved cognitive function when combined with other antipsychotics in previous studies, the add-on treatment had no influence on cognitive function in this study–in the paper, Dr. Lin and colleagues suggest that a higher dose or longer duration of treatment may be needed for these effects. Importantly, the patients taking sodium benzoate had no side effects, confirming the treatment is safe to use at the doses tested.

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Compared with the placebo, sodium benzoate improved negative symptoms, such as lack of emotion and motivation, which have a greater influence on a patient’s functional outcome than the more prominent psychotic symptoms. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.

Sodium benzoate works by preventing the breakdown of D-serine, a brain chemical that plays an important role in signaling that is disrupted in the brains of people with schizophrenia. “Receptors for D-serine are long-standing targets for medication development in schizophrenia and sodium benzoate is probably the first meaningful tool that we have had to influence this target,” said John Krystal, M.D., Editor of Biological Psychiatry. Although more studies are needed to learn how sodium benzoate enhances clozapine treatment in these patients, Dr. Krystal says that “this study highlights the importance for schizophrenia treatment of understanding the molecular switches that can be thrown to normalize brain circuit function.”

About this neuroscience research article

Source: Rhiannon Bugno – Elsevier
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Abstract in Biological Psychiatry.
doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.12.006

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Elsevier “Food Preservative Enhances Schizophrenia Treatment.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 5 February 2018.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/food-preservative-schizophrenia-8424/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Elsevier (2018, February 5). Food Preservative Enhances Schizophrenia Treatment. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved February 5, 2018 from https://neurosciencenews.com/food-preservative-schizophrenia-8424/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Elsevier “Food Preservative Enhances Schizophrenia Treatment.” https://neurosciencenews.com/food-preservative-schizophrenia-8424/ (accessed February 5, 2018).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

Sodium Benzoate, a D-Amino Acid Oxidase Inhibitor, Added to Clozapine for the Treatment of Schizophrenia: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial

Background
Clozapine is the last-line antipsychotic agent for refractory schizophrenia. To date, there is no convincing evidence for augmentation on clozapine. Activation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors, including inhibition of D-amino acid oxidase that may metabolize D-amino acids, has been reported to be beneficial for patients receiving antipsychotics other than clozapine. This study aimed to examine the efficacy and safety of a D-amino acid oxidase inhibitor, sodium benzoate, for schizophrenia patients who had poor response to clozapine.

Methods
We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Sixty schizophrenia inpatients that had been stabilized with clozapine were allocated into three groups for 6 weeks’ add-on treatment of 1 g/day sodium benzoate, 2 g/day sodium benzoate, or placebo. The primary outcome measures were Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total score, Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, Quality of Life Scale, and Global Assessment of Functioning. Side effects and cognitive functions were also measured.

Results
Both doses of sodium benzoate produced better improvement than placebo in the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms. The 2 g/day sodium benzoate also produced better improvement than placebo in PANSS-total score, PANSS-positive score, and Quality of Life Scale. Sodium benzoate was well tolerated without evident side effects. The changes of catalase, an antioxidant, were different among the three groups and correlated with the improvement of PANSS-total score and PANSS-positive score in the sodium benzoate group.

Conclusions
Sodium benzoate adjuvant therapy improved symptomatology of patients with clozapine-resistant schizophrenia. Further studies are warranted to elucidate the optimal dose and treatment duration as well as the mechanisms of sodium benzoate for clozapine-resistant schizophrenia.

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