Cairney Sheree, Maruff Paul, Clough Alan R, Collie Alex, Currie Jon, Currie Bart J
The Neuropsychology Laboratory, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, Parkville, Victoria, 3052, Australia.
Hum Psychopharmacol. 2003 Oct;18(7):525-33. doi: 10.1002/hup.532.
Kava is an extract from the Piper methysticum Forst. f. plant that has social and spiritual importance in Pacific islands societies. Herbal remedies that contain kava are used for the psychiatric treatment of anxiety and insomnia. Laboratory studies have found only subtle, if any, changes on cognitive or motor functions from the acute effects of consuming small clinical doses of kava products. Intoxication from recreational doses of kava has not been studied. The performance of individuals intoxicated from drinking kava (n=11) was compared with a control group (n=17) using saccade and cognitive tests. On average, intoxicated individuals had consumed 205 g of kava powder each (approximately 150 times clinical doses) in a group session that went for 14.4 h and ended 8 h prior to testing. Intoxicated kava drinkers showed ataxia, tremors, sedation, blepharospasm and elevated liver enzymes (GGT and ALP), together with saccadic dysmetria, saccadic slowing and reduced accuracy performing a visual search task that only became evident as the task complexity increased. Kava intoxication is characterized by specific abnormalities of movement coordination and visual attention but normal performance of complex cognitive functions. Saccade abnormalities suggest disruption of cerebellar and GABAergic functions.
卡瓦是从胡椒科植物卡瓦胡椒（Piper methysticum Forst. f.）中提取的物质，在太平洋岛屿社会具有社会和精神意义。含有卡瓦的草药制剂用于焦虑和失眠的精神治疗。实验室研究发现，服用小剂量临床用卡瓦产品产生的急性效应，对认知或运动功能仅有细微改变（若有改变的话）。尚未对娱乐剂量的卡瓦中毒情况进行研究。使用眼跳和认知测试，将饮用卡瓦而中毒的个体（n = 11）与对照组（n = 17）的表现进行了比较。平均而言，中毒个体在一次持续14.4小时且在测试前8小时结束的集体活动中，每人摄入了205克卡瓦粉末（约为临床剂量的150倍）。饮用卡瓦中毒者表现出共济失调、震颤、镇静、眼睑痉挛和肝酶（γ-谷氨酰转移酶和碱性磷酸酶）升高，同时存在眼球跳动性辨距不良、眼球跳动减慢以及在视觉搜索任务中准确性降低的情况，且这些情况仅在任务复杂性增加时才变得明显。卡瓦中毒的特征是运动协调和视觉注意力出现特定异常，但复杂认知功能表现正常。眼球跳动异常表明小脑和γ-氨基丁酸能功能受到破坏。
