Page 13 - Diet And Dementia Casein Antioxidants DHEA

NOREPINEPHRINE DOPAMINE

MOOD

ANXIETY

SEROTONIN

Figure 2. Influence of different receptor pathways on the brain.

STUDY DETAILS
WHAT
A multicentric, randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of oral _-casozepine as an
anxiolytic in cats. Alpha-casozepine is a 10 amino acid peptide produced by trypsin hydrolysis from ruminant _S-casein milk protein.

HOW
Cats were evaluated for anxiety by using a validated cat emotional scale. Owners evaluated five behaviors using a scale from 0 to 5; a
score of 0 indicated a behavior indicative of high anxiety and 5 was low anxiety. Cats were included in the study if they had a total score
of <15 on the evaluation or a score of 0 on any one behavior. There was also a subjective evaluation score performed by owners for an
impression of improvement or not.

Thirty-four cats (21 female, 13 male) were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to a placebo or test group. The test group received
15 mg/kg of _-casozepine by mouth once a day. All cats were evaluated 5 times during the study, including an initial hospital visit
followed by visits at weeks 4 and 8, and subsequent telephone evaluations at weeks 2 and 6. Three separate categories were tracked
at each evaluation: overall score; number of items with a score of 0, and owner’s evaluation of change. Positive results for the three
categories were defined as: overall objective global score > 16, no behaviors scored as 0, and owner’s subjective evaluation score > 6/10.
Successful treatment was defined as having attained criterion for both the objective global score and subjective score by week 8.

RESULTS
There was no significant difference between the groups at the beginning of the study. By week 8, 59% (10 of 17) of cats in the
_-casozepine group and 24% (4 of 17) in the placebo group had responded positively. These results (Figure 3) were significantly different
by comparison with a chi-square test (P=0.02). In addition, total global score rate of improvement over time (Figure 4), an objective
measure, was significantly greater in the _-casozepine group (P=0.003).