Nutritional interventions for the adjunctive treatment of schizophrenia: a brief review

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a chronic condition that impacts significantly not only on the individual and family, but the disorder also has wider consequences for society in terms of significant costs to the economy. This highly prevalent condition affects approximately 1% of the worldwide population, yet there are few therapeutic options. The predominant treatment strategy for schizophrenia is anti-psychotic medication (with or without additional talking therapy) even though this approach lacks efficacy in managing the negative symptoms of the condition, is not effective in one-third of the patient group and the side effects of the medication can be severe and debilitating. In recent years, a number of pathophysiological processes have been identified in groups of people with schizophrenia including oxidative stress, one-carbon metabolism and immune-mediated responses. A number of studies have shown that these altered physiological mechanisms can be ameliorated by nutritional interventions in some individuals with schizophrenia. This review briefly describes the aforementioned processes and outlines research that has investigated the utility of nutritional approaches as an adjunct to anti-psychotic medication including antioxidant and vitamin B supplementation, neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory nutrients and exclusion diets. Whilst none of these interventions provides a ‘one-size-fits-all’ therapeutic solution, we suggest that a personalised approach warrants research attention as there is growing agreement that schizophrenia is a spectrum disorder that develops from the interplay between environmental and genetic factors.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1475-2891-13-91) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Targeting Epigenetics Signaling with Curcumin: A Transformative Drug Lead in Treatment of Schizophrenia?

“…Curcumin, however, distinguishes from ketamine and likely esketamine with its potential antipsychotic effects as shown in our study with oral formulation of curcumin as curcumin C-3 complex (66). Furthermore, the benefits of curcumin in reducing the depressive symptoms have been reported in 6 randomized controlled studies in patients diagnosed as depressive disorders [76].…”

“…Curcumin, however, distinguishes from ketamine and likely esketamine with its potential antipsychotic effects as shown in our study with oral formulation of curcumin as curcumin C-3 complex (66). Furthermore, the benefits of curcumin in reducing the depressive symptoms have been reported in 6 randomized controlled studies in patients diagnosed as depressive disorders [76].These considerations lead us to entertain seriously that organizing and conducting Phase II of LipocurcTM in schizophrenia open a new chapter translating recent advances in epigenetics -based, NMDA-and inflammation pathways, coupled with nanotechnology in drug delivery, towards developing and optimizing novel therapeutics in managing the devastating consequences of schizophrenia. It is somewhat disconcerting that a recent meta-analysis of TRS schizophrenia shows that the response rate to clozapine is about 40 % with 25 % reduction in the PANSS (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale [77].…”

Review paper. Gluten-related disorders and schizophrenia - potential linking mechanisms, diagnostic and therapeutic challenge

“…w obecności przeciwciał antygliadynowych [80]. W małym badaniu na próbie 8 pacjentów, którzy nie wykazywali objawów nadwrażliwości, żaden z nich nie uzyskał korzyści płynących z diety bezglutenowej i dodatkowo pozbawionej produktów mlecznych [107,108]. W opisach poszczególnych przypadków pacjentów, którzy prezentowali objawy chorób glutenozależnych, poprawa po wprowadzeniu GFD obserwowana była zawsze.…”

“…in the presence of gliadin antibodies [80]. In a small study on a sample of 8 patients who showed no symptoms of gluten sensitivity, none of them experienced the benefits of a glutenfree and additionally devoid of dairy products diet [107,108]. In the descriptions of individual cases of patients who presented symptoms of gluten-dependent disorders, improvement after the introduction of GFD was always observed.…”

Efficacy of Gluten-Free Diet in Patients With Neurological Diseases and Psychiatric Disorders: Myth or Reality?

“…Несмотря на первичные обнаде-живающие результаты, дальнейшие клинические исследо-вания, аналогично таковым при аутизме, продемонстриро-вали довольно противоречивые результаты в отношении эффективности безглютеновой диеты при шизофрении, указывая в том числе на то, что, вероятно, существует отдельная группа больных, для которых диетотерапия явля-ется эффективной [34][35][36]. Несмотря на существующую необходимость дополнительных исследований в отношении диетотерапии, безглютеновая диета в настоящее время все же рассматривается как возможное эффективное дополне-ние к стандартной терапии при шизофрении согласно современным рекомендациям [37].…”