Cognitive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia with L-Carnosine adjuvant therapy - A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study

The antioxidant L-Carnosine is reported to improve negative and cognitive symptoms in Schizophrenia. A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study was planned to study the effectiveness of adjuvant L-Carnosine therapy in patients with Schizophrenia. 100 eligible patients with predominant negative symptoms as measured by scale for assessment of negative symptoms (SANS total score >= 60) and Schizophrenia diagnosis (International Classification of Disorder-Tenth Edition, ICD-10) were recruited. They were randomly allocated to receive a fixed dose of either 400 mg L-Carnosine or identical placebo for 3 months and increased to 800 mg from 13th week till completion of study. Primary outcome measures assessed changes in SANS scores with L-Carnosine at 24 weeks compared to baseline, 4 and 12 weeks. Secondary outcome measures were done to assess the improvement in cognitive symptoms (executive function, attention, and memory) at 24 weeks using subtests of NIMHANS (National Institute for Mental Health and Neurosciences) cognitive battery. Side effects were assessed using adverse events reporting form. The attention scores (p = .023) showed significant differences in patients receiving 800 mg of L-Carnosine at the end of the study. There were no significant differences in negative symptoms in the two arms at study completion. L-Carnosine dosing of 800 mg may be a promising agent to enhance executive functions in Schizophrenia.