Adjunctive Treatment with Withania Somnifera to Treat Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Recent insights into the immune-inflammatory dysregulation theory in schizophrenia have uncovered the potential for new treatment protocols. Currently, treatment approaches for patients on medications that experience breakthrough symptoms of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder include adjusting dosages, switching medications, or adding additional antipsychotic medications. These approaches help to curb the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, e.g. hallucinations, delusions, and bizarre or disorganized thoughts, while failing to modulate the negative symptoms, including loss of motivation, loss of energy, slowed thinking, movements, and speech production, and do not help significantly with general symptoms like depression, anxiety, and fatigue. While the popular idea of schizophrenia focuses on these “positive” symptoms, negative and general symptoms are generally associated with a patient’s ability to function in day-to-day life, and there is a clear need for an effective treatment for these as well.
Description
Withania somnifera, commonly known as ashwagandha, is a medicinal herb with demonstrated immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties. When added to antipsychotic drugs, a standardized extract of Withania somnifera provided significant benefits for negative, general, and total symptoms and significantly improved scores on a stress scale. Extract of Withania somnifera appears to avoid the side effects associated with anti-inflammatory medications such as celecoxib or aspirin, and is a promising opportunity for persons with schizoaffective disorders live a healthier and happier life.Applications
· Improving negative, general, total, and stress symptoms in recently exacerbated patients with schizophreniaAdvantages
· Significant benefits for symptoms that are untreated by antipsychotics· Improves symptoms of stress
· Decreases inflammatory markers associated with neurodegeneration
· Improves brain signals that are disturbed in persons with schizophrenia
· Side effects are mild to moderate and transient