Dietary supplement may help with schizophrenia

A dietary supplement, sarcosine, may help with schizophrenia as part of a holistic approach complementing antipsychotic medication, according to a UCL researcher. In an editorial published in the British Journal of Psychiatry , Professor David Curtis (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment and QMUL Centre for Psychiatry) suggests the readily available product could easily be incorporated into treatment plans, while calling for clinical trials to clarify the benefit and inform guidelines. "Sarcosine represents a very logical treatment and the small number of clinical trials so far do seem to show that it can be helpful. It certainly seems to be safe and some patients report feeling better on it," he said. "Sarcosine may be a helpful treatment for schizophrenia but we should be carrying out further studies in order to find out for sure." Sarcosine naturally occurs in foods such as egg yolks, turkey and legumes, and can be bought as a dietary supplement, sometimes promoted as a 'brain health supplement', with various claims being made that are not all backed up by adequate evidence. Professor Curtis writes that there is now good evidence from multiple lines of study that some patients with schizophrenia may have defects in the functioning of receptors for glutamate, a common neurotransmitter in the brain, and that sarcosine can help glutamate receptors to work better. Researchers have been accumulating evidence that if these glutamate receptors did not function properly then people could develop psychosis and other symptoms of schizophrenia.