A comparative study of acute and subchronic effects of dothiepin, fluoxetine and placebo on psychomotor and actual driving performance.

Abstract

1 The acute and subchronic effects of dothiepin

Modulation of the Critical Flicker Fusion effects of serotonin reuptake inhibitors by concomitant pupillary changes

“…In humans, SSRIs such as paroxetine, fluoxetine and sertraline have been shown to induce significant increases in pupil diameter (Deijen et al 1989;Ramaekers et al 1995;Saletu and Grünberger 1988). Pupil size determines the amount of retinal illumination (Hart 1992), and as is stated by the Ferry-Porter Law (Davson 1976), CFF is directly proportional to the logarithm of the light intensity.…”

“…However, in the case of SSRIs, CFF measurements may not be readily interpretable in terms of cognitive changes, because mydriatic (pupil dilatation) effects of SSRIs may have significantly modified the outcome of CFF measurements (Ramaekers et al 1995;Warrington et al 1989).…”

Cognitive function is related to fronto-striatal serotonin transporter levels – a brain PET study in young healthy subjects

“…Conversely for attention, ATD has in some studies (Booij et al 2005;Schmitt et al 2000) although not in all Sobczak et al 2002) been reported to improve performance in the Stroop Color Word Test (Jensen and Rohwer 1966), a test that relies heavily on focused attention. In line, serotonergic stimulation with SSRIs reduces sustained attention (Ramaekers et al 1995;O'Hanlon et al 1998;Schmitt et al 2002). These pharmacological manipulations of the serotonergic system are generally unspecific and affect many of the subtypes of pre-and postsynaptic serotonin receptors as well as the serotonin transporter (SERT), although in vivo studies using [ 11 C]DASB binding after ATD have failed to find significant changes in SERT binding (Praschak-Rieder et al 2005;Milak et al 2005).…”

A randomized trial of the effect of escitalopram versus placebo on cognitive function in healthy first-degree relatives of patients with depression

“…In a recent review, concerning the effect of SSRIs in healthy individuals, 18 randomized trials using 39 different neuropsychological tests to investigate cognitive function were identified . Treatment with a SSRI was found to improve [Murphy et al 2008;Loubinoux et al 2005;Harmer et al 2004;Schmitt et al 2001;Knutson et al 1998Knutson et al , 1997, deteriorate [Riedel et al 2005;Schmitt et al 2002aSchmitt et al , 2001Fairweather et al 1997;Ramaekers et al 1995;Robbe and O'Hanlon, 1995] or have no effect on cognitive function [Peran et al 2008;Paul et al 2007Paul et al , 2002; Wingen et al 2006Wingen et al , 2005Loubinoux et al 2005;Riedel et al 2005;Siepmann et al 2003;Schmitt et al 2002aSchmitt et al , 2002bSchmitt et al , 2001Wilson et al 2002;Allen et al 1988;Fairweather et al 1997;Ramaekers et al 1995;Robbe and O'Hanlon, 1995]. It was concluded that the diverging findings could be a result of a number of methodological drawbacks.…”