D-Cycloserine to treat anxiety

[jankie]

I've heard that in a laboratory setting, this drug has been witnessed to cause re-wiring of damaged neural pathways, but due to lack of adequate research, it's impossible to get a prescription. I've also heard that it has cured social anxiety with just one 10-day treatment. Here's an abstract to one study. I have the full text if anyone is interested.

Does D-Cycloserine Enhance Exposure Therapy forAnxiety Disorders in Humans? A Meta-Analysis
Helga Rodrigues1*, Ivan Figueira1, Alessandra Lopes1, Raquel Gonc ̧alves1, Mauro Vitor Mendlowicz2,
Evandro Silva Freire Coutinho3, Paula Ventura4

The treatment of anxiety is on the edge of a new era of combinations of pharmacologic and psychosocial interventions. Anew wave of translational research has focused on the use of pharmacological agents as psychotherapy adjuvants usingneurobiological insights into the mechanism of the action of certain psychological treatments such as exposure therapy.Recently, d-cycloserine (DCS) an antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis has been applied to enhance exposure-basedtreatment for anxiety and has proved to be a promising, but as yet unproven intervention. The present study aimed toevaluate the efficacy of DCS in the enhancement of exposure therapy in anxiety disorders. A systematic review/meta-analysis was conducted. Electronic searches were conducted in the databases ISI-Web of Science, Pubmed and PsycINFO.We included only randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials with humans, focusing on the role of DCS inenhancing the action of exposure therapy for anxiety disorders. We identified 328 references, 13 studies were included inour final sample: 4 on obsessive-compulsive disorder, 2 on panic disorder, 2 on social anxiety disorder, 2 on posttraumaticstress disorder, one on acrophobia, and 2 on snake phobia. The results of the present meta-analysis show that DCSenhances exposure therapy in the treatment of anxiety disorders (Cohen d = 20.34; CI: 20.54 to 20.14), facilitating thespecific process of extinction of fear. DCS seems to be effective when administered at a time close to the exposure therapy,at low doses and a limited number of times. DCS emerges as a potential new therapeutic approach for patients withrefractory anxiety disorders that are unresponsive to the conventional treatments available. When administered correctly,DCS is a promising strategy for augmentation of CBT and could reduce health care costs, drop-out rates and bring fasterrelief to patients.

From what I understand, it is a partial NMDA agonist...

 

[sekio]

"Cure" is a strong word... it reduced symptoms of anxiety but certainly wasn't a magical drug in that aspect

Typically, exposure therapy is employed as a psychotherapy to help patients suffering from social anxiety disorder. Nevertheless, many patients still exude symptoms even after therapy. To help such patients, in 2006, a study found that when 50 mg of DCS was administered an hour prior to exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) sessions, it resulted in a much higher anxiety reduction as compared to the administration of a placebo with CBT. Additionally, the researchers also found that when DCS was given with exposure-based CBT for social performance situations such as public speaking, this also resulted in reduction of social anxiety.

 

[jankie]

"Cure" is a strong word... it reduced symptoms of anxiety but certainly wasn't a magical drug in that aspect

This is not the particular study that I was referring to where people were cured. My therapist told me about that one. I'll have to do some digging to find it. This is the only study I could find the full text of...

 

[jankie]

I can't find it, so maybe she overstated the findings. It still looks like a promising drug for treatment of social anxiety, PTSD, and other disabling fear-based responses. I've seen a couple of other posts about it on here, but I thought it deserved a little more attention.

 

[jankie]

"Originally Posted by wiki

Also, just noticed you didn't quote the meta-analysis I posted….you referenced the first study in 2006. There have been many more since then.

Published in Jan 2015 issue of Current Psychiatry Reports: Moreover, there is evidence that DCS may also augment fear memory reconsolidation if the fear level remains high after the exposure.

Published June 2013 in Biology of Mood an Anxiety Disorders: D-cycloserine is a promising combination strategy for cognitive behavioral therapy of anxiety disorders by augmenting extinction learning. However, there is also evidence to suggest that d-cycloserine can facilitate reconsolidation of fear memory when exposure procedures are unsuccessful.