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.
Faruqi
S
S
Department of Pharmacology, St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, India.
Andrade
C
C
Ramteke
S
S
Joseph
J
J
Venkataraman
B V
BV
Naga Rani
M A
MA
D000647:Amnesia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D000648:Amnesia, Retrograde / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D000818:Animals; D004597:Electroshock / Q000009:adverse effects*; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D008515:Medicine, Ayurvedic; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
C074754:Mentat; D010936:Plant Extracts; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs