Context Trichotillomania is characterized by repetitive hair pulling that causes noticeable hair loss. Data on the pharmacologic treatment of trichotillomania are limited to conflicting studies of serotonergic medications. N-acetylcysteine, an amino acid, seems to restore the extracellular glutamate concentration in the nucleus accumbens and, therefore, offers promise in the reduction of compul...

INTRODUCTION N-acetylcysteine has proven to be effective in paracetamol intoxications, but there is no consensus regarding its way of administration. Here, we report a case to highlight the importance of careful management of intravenous n-acetylcysteine. CASE PRESENTATION A two-month old infant was seen in our paediatric emergency department due to paracetamol poisoning after repeated suprat...

The effects of intravenous N-acetylcysteine on hepatic and systemic haemodynamics were investigated in 11 patients with stable cirrhosis (eight alcohol; two primary biliary cirrhosis; one cryptogenic). N-acetylcysteine administration had no effect on the mean heart rate or mean arterial blood pressure despite a significant fall in systemic and pulmonary vascular resistance. Cardiac index increa...

AIM Liver fibrosis is a reversible wound-healing response that occurs following liver injury. In this study, we aimed to investigate the possible protective effects of L-carnitine, N-acetylcysteine and genistein in liver fibrosis induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). In addition, the effects of these agents were compared in the same study. METHODS In this study, rats were randomly allocated...

In many cell lines, glutamate cytotoxicity is known to be mediated by an inhibition of cystine transport. Because glutamate and cystine share the same transporter, elevated levels of extracellular glutamate competitively inhibit cystine transport leading to depletion of intracellular glutathione. A glutathione-depleted state impairs cellular antioxidant defenses resulting in oxidative stress. I...

BACKGROUND Mortality among patients with severe acute alcoholic hepatitis is high, even among those treated with glucocorticoids. We investigated whether combination therapy with glucocorticoids plus N-acetylcysteine would improve survival. METHODS We randomly assigned 174 patients to receive prednisolone plus N-acetylcysteine (85 patients) or only prednisolone (89 patients). All patients rec...

N-isobutyrylcysteine (NIC), a new thiol compound that is not rapidly hydrolysed to give higher levels of free thiols in the body than N-acetylcysteine (NAC), was used to test if the effect of NAC on exacerbations in chronic bronchitis was an effect of the unhydrolysed thiol compound. Smokers or exsmokers with chronic bronchitis forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) >40% and reversibilit...