Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of add-on Sarcosine in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder

July 24, 2023 updated by: Dr. Monalisa Jena, M.D., All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar

Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of add-on Sarcosine in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

One-third of the patients with major depressive disorder do not respond to conventional antidepressants that act through the mono-aminergic system. The available treatment modalities, including SSRIs, are slow to act and have a lag time before showing improvement in symptoms of patients. To overcome these treatment hurdles, add-on therapy to standard antidepressant drugs may lead to better therapeutic outcomes. Sarcosine, which is a nutraceutical, modulates glutamate neurotransmission has an ameliorative effect on the disease symptoms of depression and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The only clinical study done on depressive patients by Huang et al. cannot be generalized due to certain inherent limitations. To date, there is no randomized controlled trial with add-on sarcosine to current antidepressant therapy to the best of our knowledge. So, we considered sarcosine can be the candidate drug for add-on therapy due to its multiple mechanisms on the glutaminergic system. Adding sarcosine to ongoing antidepressant therapy may either increase their response rate or decrease adverse drug reactions by decreasing the dose requirement or may show a quicker therapeutic effect. Hence, the present randomized controlled trial has been planned to evaluate the efficacy and safety of sarcosine as add-on therapy in major depressive disorder.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Major depressive disorder or unipolar depression is a commonly encountered psychiatric disorder, with reported lifetime and one-year prevalence rates of 16.6% and 6.6%, respectively, and is associated with an increased risk of suicide. It is estimated that more than 264 million of the global population have suffered from depression. Major depressive disorder causes significant disabilities, thus adversely affects the quality of life of patients and their caregivers. Despite the clinical significance of depression, its underlying pathophysiology is still not understood comprehensibly, and different potential targets have been explored. One of the most well-researched theories of previous decades has been the monoamine hypothesis; however, it appears that simple monoamine depletion is insufficient to account for the development of the disorder. Drugs acting through enhancing the monoaminergic pathway, i.e., increasing the synaptic concentration of serotonin, noradrenaline, or dopamine, are the most commonly prescribed antidepressant medication in the last five decades. Among them, second-generation antidepressant drugs like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are the most effective and most widely used nowadays.

N-Methyl D-Aspartate receptor (NMDAR) modulation is one of the leading novel mechanisms in the pathophysiology of depression that has been postulated for the treatment of depression. The NMDA hypothesis originated from an unexpected observation that D-cycloserine, a partial agonist of the NMDAR, has antidepressant activity. Also, NMDA-enhancing treatment results in a significant reduction in depressive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. It has also been observed that major depression is associated with decreased expression and release of brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF).

Sarcosine (N-Methyl Glycine), an endogenous amino acid with NMDA receptor function enhancing property, is usually used as a dietary supplement or nutraceutical. Sarcosine increases the availability of glycine for the glycine binding site of the NMDA receptor by inhibiting its reuptake from the synaptic cleft. It also possesses glycine binding site co-agonistic activity. In various animal studies, it has been found that long-term sarcosine treatment significantly ameliorated the induced depression, confirming the potential role of sarcosine as an antidepressant agent. Huang et al. and Chen et al. have demonstrated antidepressant effects of sarcosine in animal behavior models of depression. The only clinical trial of sarcosine done on depressive patients by Huang et al. has shown better and quicker response with superior tolerability as compared to citalopram.

Therapeutic latency, lack of efficacy in a significant proportion of patients, and adverse drug reactions are the primary concerns in current antidepressant therapies. To overcome these treatment challenges, add-on therapy to standard antidepressant drugs may lead to better therapeutic outcomes. Our literature search found that to date, there is no randomized controlled trial on sarcosine as an add-on therapy to first-line antidepressants like SSRIs. The result of the previous study by Huang et al. cannot be generalized because of the inherent limitations in study design. So, the present randomized controlled trial has been planned to evaluate the efficacy and safety of add-on sarcosine to SSRIs in major depressive disorder.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

60

Phase

  • Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • India
    • Odisha
      • Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, 751019
        • AIIMS

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients aged 18-65 years, of either gender with the clinical diagnosis of major depressive disorder (DSM 5).
  • Patients with MADRS score ≥ 7 and ≤ 34 (Mild to moderate severity).
  • Patients who are on a stable dose of Sertraline 50 mg or any other SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) therapy in equivalent dose.
  • Patients who have given informed written consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Major depressive patient treated with Electro Convulsive Therapy recently.
  • History of epilepsy, head trauma, or other major neurological or medical disorders.
  • Patients with a history of bipolar depression.
  • Patients with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder.
  • Patients with suicidal risk.
  • Patients with cognitive impairment.
  • Initiating or stopping formal psychotherapy within six weeks before enrolment.
  • Patients with comorbidities like any malignancies, hepatic, renal, cardiovascular, neurological or endocrinal, respiratory dysfunction.
  • Substance abuse history of psychoactive agents.
  • Pregnant and lactating mothers.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Test
Patients in the test group will get Sarcosine 500 mg capsules once daily as an add-on to ongoing SSRI treatment.
Drug: Sarcosine and SSRI
Patients in the test group will get Sarcosine 500 mg capsules once daily as an add-on to ongoing SSRI treatment
Active Comparator: Control
Patients in the control group will get identical-looking capsules containing placebo in addition to SSRI at an once daily dose
Drug: Placebo and SSRI
Patients in the control group will get identical-looking capsules containing placebo in addition to SSRI at an once daily dose

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in severity of depressive symptoms from baseline.
Time Frame: 8 weeks
The change in symptoms of depression will be evaluated using Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale score. Each item of the questionnaire yields a score of 0 to 6. The overall score ranges from 0 to 60. A higher score indicates more severe depression.
8 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Response rate
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Response rate is defined by percentage of patients showing 50% decrease in MADRS scores from baseline.
8 weeks
Remission rate
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Remission rate is defined by percentage of patients achieving MADRS scores <7 at 8-week follow-up.
8 weeks
Severity of symptoms
Time Frame: Baseline
Severity of symptoms at baseline will be assessed by Clinical Global Impression severity scale. The Clinical Global Impression Severity scale is a 7-point scale that requires the clinician to rate the severity of the patient's illness. A higher score reflects more severe illness.
Baseline
Change in severity of symptoms
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Change in severity of symptoms will be assessed by Clinical Global Impression Improvement scale. The Clinical Global Impression Improvement scale is a 7 point scale that requires the clinician to assess how much the patient's illness has improved or worsened relative to a baseline state at the beginning of the intervention. A lower value reflects better improvement of symptoms.
8 weeks
Change in serum Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) from baseline
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Serum BDNF levels will be measured using a commercially available human enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit.
8 weeks
Change in serum Glycine from baseline
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Serum Glycine levels will be measured using a commercially available human enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit.
8 weeks
Incidence of adverse drug reactions
Time Frame: 8 weeks
During the follow-up visit, occurrence of adverse events will be assessed by the nondirective questioning to the patient.
8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Rituparna Maiti, MD, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 26, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 30, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

April 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 14, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 14, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

July 23, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 25, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 24, 2023

Last Verified

July 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IEC/AIIMSBBSR/PGThesis/21/07

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

IPD Plan Description

It will be decided later.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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