Herbal pharmacotherapy for the attenuation of electroconvulsive shock-induced anterograde and retrograde amnestic deficits.

BR-16A is an herbal (non-allopathic) medication used in India to enhance cognition. Sixty adult male Sprague Dawley rats received either BR-16A (200 mg/kg/day) or vehicle alone for 16 days. During the first 7 days, the rats were trained in a spatial memory task using the Hebb Williams complex maze. Once a day for the next 2 days, rats in BR-16A and control groups received either true or sham electroconvulsive shock (ECS). During the last 7 days of the study, the rats were reexposed to the maze to assess recall of pre-ECS training and to evaluate further improvement in learning scores. BR-16A-treated rats performed better than controls both before and after ECS. It is concluded that BR-16A facilitates learning and that this effect extends to a protection against ECS-induced anterograde and retrograde amnesia. BR-16A may hence hold promise in the restriction of ECT-induced cognitive compromise. An unexpected observation in this study was that BR-16A attenuated seizure duration; implications and mechanisms are discussed.