Desamino-D-arg8-vasopressin (DDAVP), unlike ethanol, has no effect on a boring visual vigilance task in humans.
It has been suggested that vasopressin (VP) and its analogues such as desamino-D-arg8-vasopressin (DDAVP) affect cognitive (including mnemonic) and attentional processes in man. We describe the effects of DDAVP and ethanol (EtOH) on young, healthy human volunteers, using a recently developed visual search task which assesses attention and vigilance. Over a 1-h session, the subject has to detect the occurrence of certain digits in a long list of random characters. A low dose of EtOH (0.33 ml/kg) tended to improve, and a higher dose (1.0 ml/kg) disrupted performance. DDAVP (20 or 60 micrograms/subject) had no effect whatsoever. It is concluded that intranasal administration of the peptide analogue does not markedly affect attention performance in human subjects.
D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D001887:Boredom; D003894:Deamino Arginine Vasopressin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male
D000431:Ethanol; D003894:Deamino Arginine Vasopressin