Baicalin in Neuropsychiatry

[Alchemica]

 

While the Sceletium has been showing continued promise for modulating mood and other dimensions, I've been experiencing significant and quite debilitating catatonic features for a long time and poor sleep quality but was personally hesitant to initiate the conventional lorazepam benzodiazepine therapy for catatonia due to the addictive nature of BZDs and past issues with addiction.

Decided to try higher dose baicalin extract and akin to the rapid resolution of catatonia seen with a lorazepam-challenge, there was robust rapid acute resolution of the catatonic features, agitation and somewhat improved sleep quality. Just able to feel slightly chill for once. Very early days but it seems to be quite useful and also stabilising for one's mental state.

 

The improvement of catatonic features was noted on second dose etc but as the features have been ingrained quite heavily, there's occasional return of posturing etc

 

Subjective downsides:

- waking up in the morning is harder, significant cognitive clouding etc (anything even slightly sedative does this to me) 

- reduced CNS arousal negatively impacts mental state

The baicalin also shows diverse additional features over lorazepam that intrigue me and are relevant to my situation.

Found about 1/2 tsp of 85% baicalin was sufficient

S. baicalensis and it's primary active constituent baicalin has diverse pharmacological properties. In particular, baicalin seems to have promising CNS activity [1].

Antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like properties (the latter mediated through the activation of benzodiazepine binding site of GABAA receptors)

 

Inhibits prolyl oligopeptidase dose-dependently, having potential benefits for schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, and related neuropsychiatric diseases [2].

Can potentially be used to treat dopaminergic dysfunction-associated CNS diseases (incl. neurodegenerative and ADHD). It's able to protect dopaminergic neurons and modulate brain dopamine levels, thus serving as a potentially effective novel treatment for ADHD [3].

In schizophrenia, addition of baicalin (1.5g/day) to atypical antipsychotics led to greater improvements in both primary and secondary negative symptoms than those treated with antipsychotics alone - seems to have efficacy for predominant negative symptoms and in improving cognitive function [4].

Able to facilitate remyelination in various models of CNS disorders and suppress neuroinflammation [5] 

Baicalin can:
- pass through the blood–brain barrier
- stimulate neurogenesis
- promote neural differentiation and inhibit neuronal apoptosis 
- inhibit neuroinflammation and oxidative stress
- promote CNS myelin repair

Shown to be relatively nontoxic when given orally
 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Alchemica