Sarcosine

CAM (amino acid, glutamatergic, inhibits glycine uptake)

Major Depression³
ADHD (improved oppositional symptoms only)³

Schizophrenia (augments antipsychotics for positive and negative symptoms)³

Features

Elderly-Safe, Generic, Tolerable, Non-controlled, Bipolar-Safe, Natural, Weight-Free, Sexual-free, Non-sedating

Handout

Dosing

Depression: 500 mg daily.

Schizophrenia: 2,000-3,000 mg daily.

ADHD: 600-1200 mg daily.

Management

TOLERABILITY: Inner tension, irritability.

RISKS: None (during prostate cancer, tumor cells produce more sarcosine, but elevated sarcosine does not cause prostate cancer).

EMR Text

Depression

Sarcosine use based on small controlled trials in depression (Padhan M et al, J Psychiatr Res. 2024;178:298-304).

Sarcosine side effects reviewed with patient.

Schizophrenia

Sarcosine use based on multiple randomized controlled trials in schizophrenia (Chang CH et al, J Psychopharmacol. 2020;34(5):495-505).

Sarcosine side effects reviewed with patient.

ADHD Oppositional Symptoms

Sarcosine use based on a randomized controlled trial where it improved oppositional symptoms in ADHD (Tzang RF et al, J Psychopharmacol. 2016;30(10):976-82).

Sarcosine side effects reviewed with patient.

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