ArticleClinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology2021
Effectiveness of N-acetylcysteine in Treating Clinical Symptoms of Substance Abuse and Dependence: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Article in Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 3 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 17 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
- N-acetylcysteine as a treatment for substance use cravings: A meta-analysis.Addiction biology · 2024Pooled it
- Effect of N-acetylcysteine on craving in substance use disorders (SUD): a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Pooled it
- The therapeutic effect of N-acetylcysteine as an add-on to methadone maintenance therapy medication in outpatients with substance use disorders: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.Brain and behavior · 2023Trial
- Novel circUnc79 regulates morphine-induced reward memoryActa pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2026Article
- Article
- The Central Nervous System Modulatory Activities of N-Acetylcysteine: A Synthesis of Two Decades of Evidence.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Protective Effects of N-Acetylcysteine in Alleviating Cocaine-Mediated Microglial Activation and Neuroinflammation.Biology · 2025Article
- The Mechanism and Inflammatory Markers Involved in the Potential Use of N-acetylcysteine in Chronic Pain Management.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Exploring the potential link between ΔFosB andActa neuropsychiatrica · 2024Review
- N-acetylcysteine as a treatment for substance use cravings: A meta-analysis.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- IL-8 (CXCL8) Correlations with Psychoneuroimmunological Processes and Neuropsychiatric Conditions.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Review
- N-acetylcysteine for smoking cessation among dual users of tobacco and cannabis: Protocol and rationale for a randomized controlled trial.Contemporary clinical trials · 2023Article
- Article
- The Potential of N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC) in the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders.CNS drugs · 2022Review
- Pharmacological Evaluation of Scopoletin in the Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced Hepatotoxicity Model in Wistar Rats.Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciencesArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTreatment with N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is believed to reduce the clinical symptoms among individuals with substance abuse or dependence. We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of NAC in treating substance abuse and dependence.
methodsPubMed, EMBASE, ClinicalTrials.gov registry, and the Cochrane Library were searched for trials published before June 2020.
resultsA total of 16 trials were analyzed. The treatment effectiveness domains assessed in this study were craving and depressive symptoms, withdrawal syndrome, adverse events, and smoking frequency. Standardized mean difference (SMD), weighted mean difference (WMD), and odds ratio (OR) were used for evaluation where appropriate. A significant decrease in craving symptoms was observed in the NAC treatment group compared with the control group (SMD, -0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], -1.21 to 0.21). When withdrawal and depressive symptoms were considered as a single domain, the NAC treatment group demonstrated a significantly higher overall improvement than the control group (SMD, -0.35; 95% CI, -0.64 to -0.06). No between-group differences in term of the OR of adverse events (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 0.68 to 2.06) and a non-significant trend toward reduction in smoking frequency was observed in the NAC treatment group compared with the control group (WMD, -3.09; 95% CI, -6.50 to 0.32).
conclusionNAC provides certain noticeable benefits in attenuating substance craving and might help alleviate depressive symptoms and withdrawal syndrome. Precautious measures should be considered when using NAC although no difference in adverse effects was found between NAC treatment and control group.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.