ArticleContemporary clinical trials2020
N-acetylcysteine for the treatment of comorbid alcohol use disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder: Design and methodology of a randomized clinical trial.
Article in Contemporary clinical trials, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- N-acetylcysteine for patients with alcohol use disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and their co-occurrence: a systematic review of placebo-controlled randomized trials.BMC psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Associations between suicide ideation, craving, and alcohol use across 12 weeks of outpatient treatment for alcohol use disorder.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2026Trial
- Effects of N-acetylcysteine treatment on frontal glutamate and GABA levels and associations with drinking quantity in people with co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Unlocking NAC's potential ATF4 and m6A dynamics in rescuing cognitive impairments in PTSD.Metabolic brain disease · 2025Article
- Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A State-of-the-art Review.Current neuropharmacology · 2024Review
- Intrusive thinking: Circuit and synaptic mechanisms of a transdiagnostic psychiatric symptom.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Clinical translational neuroimaging of the antioxidant effect of N-acetylcysteine on neural microstructure.Magnetic resonance in medicine · 2022Article
- Review
- The Impact of COVID-19 on Psychotherapy Participation Among Individuals With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Enrolled in Treatment Research.Journal of traumatic stress · 2022Article
- Astrocytes in cocaine addiction and beyond.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Review
- N-acetylcysteine in substance use disorder: a lesson from preclinical and clinical research.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2021Review
- Altered cytoskeletal arrangement in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and motor neurons from patients with riboflavin transporter deficiency.Disease models & mechanisms · 2021Article
- Neuroimmune Mechanisms as Novel Treatment Targets for Substance Use Disorders and Associated Comorbidities.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Review
- Mitochondrial Abnormalities in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells-Derived Motor Neurons from Patients with Riboflavin Transporter Deficiency.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are two prevalent psychiatric conditions in the U.S. The co-occurrence of AUD and PTSD is also common, and associated with a more severe clinical presentation and worse treatment outcomes across the biopsychosocial spectrum (e.g., social and vocational functioning, physical health) as compared to either disorder alone. Despite the high co-occurrence and negative outcomes, research on effective medications for AUD/PTSD is sparse and there is little empirical evidence to guide treatment decisions. The study described in this paper addresses this knowledge gap by testing the efficacy of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in reducing alcohol use and PTSD symptoms. Animal studies and prior clinical research suggest a role for NAC in the treatment of substance use disorders and PTSD via glutamate modulation. NAC is a cysteine pro-drug that stimulates the cystine-glutamate exchanger, normalizes glial glutamate transporters, and restores glutamatergic tone on presynaptic receptors in reward regions of the brain. Moreover, NAC is available over-the-counter, has a long-established safety record, and does not require titration to achieve the target dose. This paper describes the rationale, study design, and methodology of a 12-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of NAC (2400 mg/day) among adults with co-occurring AUD and PTSD. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (
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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.