A review of the EEG effects of the combination of almitrine and raubasine in animals and humans.

During recent years many studies on the electroencephalogram (EEG) changes induced by almitrine-raubasine (Duxil) have been performed in elderly patients and in animals. This article gives an overview of three questions raised by their results. Is there a simple addition of the raubasine and almitrine effects when they are coadministered? Are the EEG effects of this treatment dependent on the patient's disease? To what extent could EEG studies provide some knowledge about the mechanism of action of almitrine-raubasine therapy? In adult (8 months) and aged (22 months) rats the EEG changes induced by the coadministration of almitrine and raubasine were significantly different from the addition of individual almitrine and raubasine EEG effects. In adult rats the coadministration induced slighter EEG changes than those predicted by the addition of almitrine and raubasine effects. In aged rats, the coadministration induced a decrease in delta-theta power not predictable from the effects of almitrine or raubasine. These results could be taken as an indication that some biological targets are common for the two drugs and that the coadministration results in pharmacological effects more complicated than a simple addition of raubasine and almitrine properties. After 3 weeks of treatment in aged healthy subjects, the coadministration induced an increase in the alpha and beta power with a slight decrease of delta and beta-1 powers. In patients with cognitive decline of probable degenerative origin, 3 months of therapy with almitrine-raubasine was mainly associated with a decreased delta and theta power and a slight increase in high frequency components of the alpha band.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)