Andrade C, Joseph J, Chandra J S, Vankataraman B V, Rani M A
Department of Psychopharmacology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, India.
Convuls Ther. 1994 Mar;10(1):59-64.
To date, no pharmacological agent has been confirmed to lessen electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)-induced memory deficits. BR-16A is an herbal preparation, containing various organic extracts, used in India for the enhancement of cognition (among other applications). In the present study, adult male Sprague-Dawley rats received six once-daily electroconvulsive shocks (ECSs). Half the animals were treated with BR-16A (200 mg/kg/day) for 1 week before ECS, during the ECS course, and during the post-ECS learning assessment phase; the remaining animals received vehicle alone. In experiment 1, rats (n = 16/treatment group) were preassessed for learning on days 3 and 5 of exposure to the Hebb-Williams complex maze and were reassessed after comparable exposure to the maze starting from the second day post-ECS. In experiment 2, rats (n = 9/treatment group) were preassessed for number of trials to satisfactory learning and number of wrong arm entries in a T-maze and were reassessed on the second day post-ECS. The learning preassessments were conducted just prior to the commencement of the BR-16A/vehicle treatments. In both experiments, rats receiving BR-16A performed significantly better than controls. It is concluded that BR-16A protects against ECS-induced anterograde amnesia. BR-16A may therefore have scope in minimizing ECT-induced learning deficits.
迄今为止，尚无药理学药物被证实可减轻电休克治疗（ECT）引起的记忆缺陷。BR - 16A是一种草药制剂，含有多种有机提取物，在印度用于增强认知（以及其他用途）。在本研究中，成年雄性Sprague - Dawley大鼠接受了每日一次的六次电休克（ECS）。一半的动物在ECS前1周、ECS过程中以及ECS后学习评估阶段接受BR - 16A（200mg/kg/天）治疗1周；其余动物仅接受赋形剂。在实验1中，大鼠（每组n = 16）在接触赫布 - 威廉姆斯复杂迷宫的第3天和第5天进行学习预评估，并在从ECS后第二天开始再次接触迷宫后进行重新评估。在实验2中，大鼠（每组n = 9）在T迷宫中进行达到满意学习的试验次数和错误臂进入次数的预评估，并在ECS后第二天进行重新评估。学习预评估在BR - 16A/赋形剂治疗开始前进行。在两个实验中，接受BR - 16A的大鼠表现均明显优于对照组。得出的结论是，BR - 16A可预防ECS引起的顺行性遗忘。因此，BR - 16A在最小化ECT引起的学习缺陷方面可能具有应用前景。
