Heidari N, et al. - Researchers examined the efficacy of oral N-acetylcysteine (NAC), an agent with known anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, as an adjunct therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes suffering from painful diabetic neuropathy. They randomly assigned 113 eligible patients to either the pregabalin + placebo or pregabalin + NAC group for 8 weeks (pregabalin at a dose of 150 mg per day, NAC and matched placebo at doses of 600 mg twice a day). Among 90 patients who completed the 8-week course of the study, patients in pregabalin + NAC group exhibited a greater decrease in mean pain scores and mean sleep interference score in comparison with those in pregabalin + placebo group. Further, they observed ameliorative effects of NAC on oxidative toxic stress biomarkers. This illustrates that NAC may relieve painful symptoms of diabetic neuropathy, at least in part by its antioxidant effects.