The nimodipine, calcium-channel blocker, is known to specific to brain tissue and effect on the ischemic stroke. To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of nimodipine, we studied the 37 patients with Organic Brain Syndrome(OBS) who admitted to St. Mary's Hospital from January to August, 1989. We followed up for 12 weeks of their 18 items of neurologic outcome. The results and conclusion were as follows: 1) The pretreatment SCAG(Sandoz Clinical Assessment-Geriatric Scale) was used as a base-line measurement and the efficacy of the therapy was evaluated entirely in terms of changes in SCAG after 3, 6, 9 and 12 weeks of treatment. The total score was changed with meaningful improvement(p<0.01). 2) Among the 18 items of symptoms, the confusion, the level of alertness, the memory and the orientation were the area that have showed the most improvement. 3) No effect on heart, blood chemistry or other side effect was noted during medication. 4) We also found that those improvement has no specific relation to age, sex and causes of OBS. These result indicate that nimodipine has a possible therapeutic benefit in patients with OBS, especially who have the symptoms of confusion and impaired recent memory. These result should encouraged us to do further study such as double blind placebo in order to clarify the genuine pharmacological efficacy.
Brain* ; Chemistry ; Heart ; Humans ; Memory ; Nimodipine* ; Stroke