The Therapeutic Promise of Kratom for Schizophrenia:
Abstract
Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric disorder characterized by positive, negative, cognitive, and neurological symptoms resulting from complex pathophysiological disturbances. This extensive review provides a rigorous analysis of kratom's multifaceted neuropharmacology and its potential to ameliorate schizophrenia symptomatology through potentiation of neuroprotective, neurogenic, and neuroplastic processes. Kratom's major alkaloids and their known receptor targets are detailed extensively, elucidating mechanisms of action related to dopaminergic, glutamatergic, GABAergic, adrenergic, serotonergic, adenosinergic, and inflammatory modulation relevant to schizophrenia treatment. The neuroprotective effects of kratom's antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-excitotoxic properties are delineated. Kratom's potential to stimulate neurogenesis in critical hippocampal and cortical brain regions through CREB, BDNF, VEGF, and other signaling pathways is also explored in depth. Furthermore, the capability of kratom to enhance neuroplasticity via diverse synaptic, structural, and epigenetic mechanisms is rigorously appraised. The risks, toxicology, side effects, and optimal therapeutic considerations for kratom are additionally discussed. This comprehensive work significantly expands the current understanding of kratom's multifaceted neuropharmacology and propounds its novel application as a promising neuroprotective, neurogenic, and neuroplastic modulator for ameliorating schizophrenia's heterogenous symptomatology and progressive clinical course.