This was a double-blind placebo-controlled study with a cross-over design to examine the effects of scopolamine on cognitive functions in young healthy subjects. Scopolamine hydrobromide was administered subcutaneously to 12 subjects (mean ± SD age 23.8 ± 2.2 years) at doses of 0.3 and 0.6 mg in comparison with two placebo conditions. Scopolamine at both doses produced marked sedation as rated by subjects and an observer. In the continuous performance test, vigilance was impaired by both doses of scopolamine. The span of apprehension test showed differing results (only the high dose of scopolamine showed a performance decrement only in the three-character version of the span of apprehension test). Significant impairment by both doses of scopolamine was seen in immediate and delayed free recall, continuous visual recognition, running word recognition and running picture recognition. While scopolamine caused a significant slowing in average reaction times for simultaneous matching as well as for delayed matching, subjects made more errors under scopolamine compared to placebo only in delayed matching, not in simultaneous matching. Also, the main outcome of matching to sample showed significant effects only in delayed matching, not in simultaneous matching. Notable in this study is the incongruity between the simultaneous matching test and the span of apprehension test on the one hand and the other cognitive tests used on the other. These results demonstrated that scopolamine has a greater effect on memory than on attention. Thus, the scopolamine-induced effects in the present study seem to be more relevant to Alzheimer’s disease in an advanced phase than to normal aging.
Zusammenfassung: Drei Wortschatztests (HAWIE-R Wortschatz-Test, WST, MWT-B) wurden an 104 psychiatrischen Patienten und 138 Probanden bezüglich Validität und Normenäquivalenz mit dem Hamburg-Wechsler Intelligenztest für Erwachsene-Revision (HAWIE-R) verglichen. Patienten und Probanden waren nach Alter und sozialem Status geschichtet und deckten mit HAWIE-R Gesamt-IQs zwischen 42 und 149 den relevanten Intelligenzbereich ab. Alle drei Wortschatztests waren erwartungsgemäß wenig altersabhängig (r < .20), stärker bildungsabhängig (.26 < r < .67) und korrelierten sowohl untereinander (r > .76) als auch mit dem HAWIE-R Verbal- und Gesamt-IQ hoch (.51 < r < .90). Sie sind daher als ökonomische Maße der kristallisierten, globalen oder akademischen Intelligenz prinzipiell geeignet. Der MWT-B überschätzte bei Probanden den Verbal-IQ des HAWIE-R um 17 und den Gesamt-IQ des HAWIE-R um 16 IQ-Punkte und kann daher zur absoluten Messung nicht empfohlen werden. Der WST lieferte im Mittel dem HAWIE-R vergleichbare IQ-Werte. Allerdings traten beim WST in rund 25% (32%) der Fälle extreme Über- oder Unterschätzungen der Intelligenz verglichen mit dem Verbal-(Gesamt-) IQ des HAWIE-R auf, insbesondere in Extrembereichen der Intelligenz. IQ-Angaben sind daher nur unter Angabe des jeweils verwendeten Verfahrens sinnvoll interpretierbar.
The CERAD neuropsychological test battery is becoming the standard measure for screening cognitive deficits associated with dementia. The seven subtests of the CERAD battery (Mini-Mental State Examination or MMSE, verbal fluency, Modified Boston Naming Test or MBNT, construction ability, learning of word lists, recall, and recognition), a short test of crystallized intelligence (vocabulary test or WST), and a simple test of visuo-motor tracking (number relation test-G or ZVT-G) were applied to 30 healthy control subjects, 49 depressed patients, and 98 mildly to severely demented patients. All subtests of the CERAD battery separated controls from mildly demented patients. Overall, depressed patients scored between controls and mildly demented patients. Score differences between depressed patients and mildly demented patients were significant for MMSE, learning and recall of the word list, verbal fluency, and MBNT. This paper contains a profile sheet for the CERAD battery developed according to published norms that allows rapid transformation of test results into a scaled graphical representation.
The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of alpidem, a new imidazopyridine derivative with benzodiazepine-like anxiolytic effects, with those of lorazepam and placebo on memory and attention in two age groups of healthy volunteers. The study design was that of a randomized double-blind crossover trial with 12 young (18-30 years old) and 12 elderly (65-80) subjects. At weekly intervals, each subject was administered single oral doses of 25 mg alpidem, 50 mg alpidem, 1 mg lorazepam, and placebo in a randomized sequence. Computerized memory and attention tests were performed 90 minutes before and 320 minutes after drug administration. Lorazepam and alpidem 50 mg produced memory impairments: for verbal memory tests the difference against placebo was highly significant for both drugs, while for visual memory this impairment was significant for lorazepam only. No memory effects were seen with 25 mg alpidem. There were no significant drug effects on attention, suggesting a specific amnestic effect not explained by general sedation. Performance of the elderly subjects was much lower than that of the younger ones in both memory and attention tasks. It was not possible to observe any interaction effects between drug and age.
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