Elsevier

Schizophrenia Research

Volume 158, Issues 1–3, September 2014, Pages 268-269
Schizophrenia Research

Letter to the Editor
Cysteamine, a pro-BDNF drug, as an adjunctive treatment for schizophrenia

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2014.06.030Get rights and content

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Role of funding source

None.

Contributors

Dr. Kirkpatrick designed the study. Dr. Miller was the clinical rater. Dr. Pillai performed assays for BDNF. Drs. Buckley and Miller managed the literature searches. Dr. Buckley wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

Conflict of interest

In the past 12 months, Dr. Buckley has served as a consultant for the NIMH and has received grant/research support from Sunovion and the NIMH.

In the past 12 months, Dr. Miller has received grant/research support from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the American Psychiatric Association, and Georgia Regents University; and honoraria from Medscape and Insight Consulting Group.

In the past 12 months, Dr. Pillai has received grant/research support from the National Institute of Mental

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dawn Montoya, Becca Nichols, and Edna Stirewalt for assistance.

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    Citation Excerpt :

    BDNF, other neurotrophins, pro-neurotrophic factors and corresponding downstream signaling pathway interveners, have been considered as potential adjunctive treatment options, although they comprise numerous methodological and pharmacokinetic problems [220]. Recent investigation has captured interest in cysteamine (an FDA-approved precursor of cystamine), a pro-BDNF drug with anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic properties [28,281,282]. Although promising, a recent open-labeled trial testing cysteamine in SZ patients medicated with second-generation antipsychotics, did not find considerable effects on symptoms and cognitive function for the two patients enrolled, but found increased sequential BDNF levels that were, however, only measured in one single patient [28].

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