Effect of Clozapine and Adjunctive High-Dose Glycine in Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE: The focus of this study was the systematic evaluation of the clinical effects of glycine as an adjunct to the atypical antipsychotic clozapine in the treatment of schizophrenia. METHOD: In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 19 patients with chronic, treatment-resistant schizophreni...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of psychiatry 1999-01, Vol.156 (1), p.145-147
Main Authors: Potkin, Steven G., Jin, Yi, Bunney, Blynn G., Costa, Jerome, Gulasekaram, Bala
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Antipsychotic Agents - therapeutic use
Augmentation
Biological and medical sciences
Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale - statistics & numerical data
Clozapine
Clozapine - therapeutic use
Drug therapy
Drug Therapy, Combination
Female
Glycine - therapeutic use
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Neuropharmacology
Patients
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Placebos
Psycholeptics: tranquillizer, neuroleptic
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopharmacology
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - diagnosis
Schizophrenia - drug therapy
Schizophrenia - prevention & control
Schizophrenic Psychology
Treatment
Treatment Outcome
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Summary:OBJECTIVE: The focus of this study was the systematic evaluation of the clinical effects of glycine as an adjunct to the atypical antipsychotic clozapine in the treatment of schizophrenia. METHOD: In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 19 patients with chronic, treatment-resistant schizophrenia who were maintained on optimal doses of clozapine (400-1200 mg day) were administered either 30 g day of glycine (N=9) or placebo (N=10) for 12 weeks. Clinical evaluations with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, and the Simpson-Angus movement scale were completed biweekly. RESULTS: The use of glycine as an adjunct to clozapine was not effective in decreasing positive or negative symptoms. In contrast, the patients treated with clozapine without glycine had a 35% reduction in positive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary data suggest that glycine may interfere with the antipsychotic efficacy of atypical neuroleptics such as clozapine.
ISSN:0002-953X
1535-7228
DOI:10.1176/ajp.156.1.145