Trial reportJournal of clinical psychopharmacology2013
A placebo-controlled trial of acetyl-L-carnitine and α-lipoic acid in the treatment of bipolar depression.
Trial report in Journal of clinical psychopharmacology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mitochondrial modulators in the treatment of bipolar depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Nutraceuticals for the Treatment of Bipolar Disorder.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2021Pooled it
- Alpha-lipoic acid in the treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders: a systematic review.Metabolic brain disease · 2019Pooled it
- Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) and International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) 2018 guidelines for the management of patients with bipolar disorder.Bipolar disorders · 2018Guideline
- Trial
- Current Evidence of Acetyl-L-Carnitine Use in Mood Disorders-: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Review
- Thioctic acid shield against lipopolysaccharide depression and endoplasmic reticulum stress: GR7M/Homer/ATF6 signaling.Future science OA · 2024Article
- Mitochondrial dysfunction in psychiatric disorders.Schizophrenia research · 2024Review
- Article
- Metabolic Alterations and Related Biological Functions of Post-Stroke Depression in Ischemic Stroke Patients.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2023Article
- Carnitine and Depression.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Review
- Mitigating the pro-oxidant state and melanogenesis of Retinitis pigmentosa: by counteracting mitochondrial dysfunction.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2021Review
- Comparative efficacy of mitochondrial agents for bipolar disorder during depressive episodes: a network meta-analysis using frequentist and Bayesian approaches.Psychopharmacology · 2021Review
- Mitochondrial dysfunction as a critical event in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder.Mitochondrion · 2021Review
- Impact of Supplementation and Nutritional Interventions on Pathogenic Processes of Mood Disorders: A Review of the Evidence.Nutrients · 2021Review
- Targeting Mitochondrial Dysfunction for Bipolar Disorder.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2021Review
- The Role of Mitochondria in Mood Disorders: From Physiology to Pathophysiology and to Treatment.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Review
- Assessing the antioxidant and metabolic effect of an alpha-lipoic acid and acetyl-L-carnitine nutraceutical.Current research in food science · 2021Article
- Creatine for the Treatment of Depression.Biomolecules · 2019Review
- Psychopharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics for Bipolar Depression.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBipolar disorder may be associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. Therefore, agents that enhance mitochondrial functioning may be efficacious in bipolar disorder. We performed a randomized placebo-controlled trial of the mitochondrial enhancers acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR) and α-lipoic acid (ALA) in patients with bipolar depression, and assessed markers of cerebral energy metabolism using phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
methodsWe administered ALCAR (1000-3000 mg daily) plus ALA (600-1800 mg daily) or placebo for 12 weeks to 40 patients with bipolar depression and obtained imaging data at baseline, week 1, and week 12 of treatment in 20 patients using phosphorus 3-dimensional chemical-shift imaging at 4 T. Statistical analysis used random effects mixed models.
resultsWe found no significant difference between ALCAR/ALA and placebo on change from baseline in the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale in both the longitudinal (mean difference [95% confidence interval], -1.4 [-6.2 to 3.4], P = 0.58) and last-observation-carried-forward (-3.2 [-7.2 to 0.9], P = 0.12) analyses. ALCAR/ALA treatment significantly reduced phosphocreatine levels in the parieto-occipital cortex at week 12 (P = 0.002). Reduction in whole brain total nucleoside triphosphate levels from baseline to week 1 was associated with reduction in Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale scores (P = 0.02) in patients treated with ALCAR/ALA. However, this was likely a chance finding attributable to multiple statistical comparisons.
conclusionsTreatment with ALCAR and ALA at the dose and duration used in this study does not have antidepressant effects in depressed bipolar patients and does not significantly enhance mitochondrial functioning in this patient group.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.