Men suffering from category III chronic prostatitis may benefit from N-acetylcysteine as an adjunct to alpha-blockers

Objective

We designed this study to investigate the potential use of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) as an adjunct to alpha-blockers in the treatment of category III chronic prostatitis (CP).

Methods

Sixty-three men with category III CP with a National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI) total score of 15 or more were randomized to either the NAC treatment group or the placebo treatment group. Besides tamsulosin at a dose of 0.4 mg once daily, participants based on their allocation group received NAC or placebo at a dose of 600 mg twice daily for 12 weeks. The efficacy of the medications was assessed by measuring changes in the NIH-CPSI total score and its subscales, including pain, urinary symptoms, and quality of life.

Results

Based on the general linear model analysis of the data, over the 12-week treatment, NAC+tamsulosin was statistically superior to placebo+tamsulosin in reducing the total NIH-CPSI score, pain subscore, and quality-of-life subscore (P value <.001). Further, after 12 weeks, more patients in the NAC+tamsulosin group than in the placebo+tamsulosin group met the responder criterion, defined as a decrease of at least 6 points in the NIH-CPSI total score (65.6% vs 29.0%). A more favorable outcome was also noted in the NAC+tamsulosin group regarding the number of patients reporting moderate or marked improvement in symptoms (62.5% vs 25.80%). No significant difference was seen between the groups concerning changes in urinary symptoms.

Conclusions

Our study provided clinical evidence that men with category III CP might benefit from NAC treatment. Further studies are needed for the validation of these findings.