Studied as augmentative agent to fluvoxamine in moderate-to-severe obsessive-compulsive disorder
MONDAY, March 7, 2016 (HealthDay News) — N-acetylcysteine (NAC) appears to be effective as an augmentative agent for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), according to a study published online March 2 in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics.
Koosha Paydary, M.D., from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran, and colleagues conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving patients with moderate-to-severe OCD. Forty-four patients were randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to receive fluvoxamine plus placebo (22 patients) or fluvoxamine plus NAC (22 patients). The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) was used to evaluate response to therapy at baseline and at weeks four, eight, and 10. Predesigned checklists were used to record side effects upon each visit.
The researchers observed a significant between-group effect for time × treatment interaction in the Y-BOCS total score (P = 0.012) and Y-BOCS obsession subscale (P = 0.011).
“Our results showed that NAC might be effective as an augmentative agent in the treatment of moderate-to-severe OCD,” the authors write.
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