No abstract available.
Nootropic Agents*

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most typical progressive and irreversible dementia characterized by loss of intellectual capacity in many domains, altered behavior, inability to care for oneself, and ultimately neurologic abnormalities. In the treatment of AD, the focus is limited to relief of cognitive and behavioral symptoms. But the choice of adequate treatment according to severity level is difficult task for maintaining patient's quality of life. We experienced a case of typical presenile Alzheimer's disease who progressed severe dementia while being treated with cognitive enhancers and psychosocial intervention for three years. In review of this case, we conclude that early detection and active treatment of presenile dementia is most important factor for delaying of progress and decreasing of family burden.
Alzheimer Disease ; Behavioral Symptoms ; Dementia* ; Humans ; Nootropic Agents ; Quality of Life

It is testified by long-standing traditional Chinese medicine clinical practice that ginseng was effective in treating dementia and promoting capability of learning and memory, for which ginsenoside Rg1 has been proved the main effective ingredient. Recently many researches have been carried out on the mechanism and action links of ginsenoside Rg1, and illustrated that it could exert the anti-dementia and nootropic effects through intervening multiple targets and links, thus to provide a theoretical basis for bettering the clinical use of ginsenoside Rg1.
Animals ; Ginsenosides ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Learning ; drug effects ; Memory ; drug effects ; Neuronal Plasticity ; drug effects ; Nootropic Agents ; pharmacology

This paper reviews history of new drug development in Korea as well as researchs on development of new psychotherapeutic drug from traditional medicines or natural products in Korea. Korea has a long history of traditional medicine and accumulated knowledge of natural resources. However, only a few new drug have been developed from those natural products. Now many researchers in Korea are devoting themselves to test the possibility of natural products as antipsychotic drugs, antidepressants, anxiolytic drugs and cognitive enhancers. However, only a few graduates from traditional medical schools in Korea are engaging in research on developing new drug from natural products and they are not familiar to research methods of western medicine and pharmacology. For research and development of new drug from natural products or traditional medicines, many researchers should be trained for methodology of basic medicine, pharmacology, pharmacognosy, and oriential pharmacy. Government and pharmaceutical companies need to provide more investment for R & D for new drug from natural products including establishment of data base for component of traditional medicines and natural products, system development integrating information technology, bio-technology and nanotechnology, and international collaboration with advanced countries which have common interest in new drug development from natural products.
Antidepressive Agents ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Biological Products ; Natural Resources ; Cooperative Behavior ; Investments ; Korea ; Medicine, Korean Traditional ; Medicine, Traditional ; Nanotechnology ; Nootropic Agents ; Pharmacognosy ; Pharmacology ; Pharmacy ; Schools, Medical

OBJECTIVETo investigate the therapeutic effects of modified Sanjiasan decoction (MSD) on vascular dementia (VD).

METHODSThirty-seven patients in the treated group were given MSD, one dosage each day, and 31 patients in the control group were administered orally Naofukang 0.8 g three times a day. The treatment course for both groups was three months. The indices as Hasegawa dementia scale (HDS), mini mental state examination (MMSE) and its subentries, intelligence quotient (IQ) and memory quotient (MQ) were examined.

RESULTSMSD could improve the scores of HDS, MMSE and its subentries (P<0.05 or P<0.01), ameliorate dementia state and enhance IQ (P<0.05) and MQ (P<0.01) in patients with VD.

CONCLUSIONMSD has a certain effect on intelligence benefiting and dementia antagonizing.

Aged ; Dementia, Vascular ; drug therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Intelligence ; drug effects ; Intelligence Tests ; Male ; Materia Medica ; therapeutic use ; Middle Aged ; Nootropic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Phytotherapy

This study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of early application of citicoline in the treatment of patients with acute stroke by meta-analysis. Randomized controlled trials published until May 2015 were electronically searched in MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, WHO International Clinical Trial Registration Platform, Clinical Trial.gov, and China Biology Medicine disc. Two reviewers independently screened the articles and extracted the data based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The quality of included articles was evaluated by using Revman5.0, and meta-analysis was performed. The results showed that 1027 articles were obtained in initial retrieval, and finally 7 articles, involving a total of 4039 cases, were included for analysis. The meta-analysis showed that no significant differences were found in the long-term mortality (OR=0.91, 95% CI 0.07 to 1.09, P=0.30), the rate of dependency (OR=1.02, 95% CI 0.87 to 1.24, P=0.85), and the effective rate (OR=0.98, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.14, P=0.82) between citicoline group and control group. The overall rate of adverse events in citicoline group was not significantly different from that in control group (P=0.30). The quality of included articles reached moderate-low level. In conclusion, citicolne cannot reduce long-term mortality and dependence rate in the treatment of acute stroke, and the effective rate of citivoline may be not better than that of controls but with reliable safety.
Aged ; Cytidine Diphosphate Choline ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nootropic Agents ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; Stroke ; drug therapy

OBJECTIVETo study the efficacy and safety of Reinhartdt and sea cucumber capsule (RSC) combined with donepezil in treating Alzheimer's disease (AD), and its effect on thyroid function axis.

METHODSSixty-eight patients were randomly assigned to the RSC group, the Donepezil group and the combined treatment group, who were treated for 3 and 6 months with RSC, Donepezil and RSC combined with Donepezil, respectively. The curative effect was evaluated by scoring according to Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), ADAS-Cog and ADL chart, and the level of thyroid hormones, including TSH, FT3, FT4, TT3 and TT4, were measured with radioimmunoassay before treatment, 3 and 6 months after treatment respectively.

RESULTSAs compared with the baseline, MMSE score increased, ADAS-Cog score and ADL score decreased significantly in all the three groups after 3 months and 6 months of treatment (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01), but the improvement in the combined treatment group was more significant than that in the other two groups (P < 0.01). After 6 months of treatment, the levels of FT3 and FT4 in the combined treatment group were significantly changed (P < 0.01), but no significant change in all the thyroid hormones was found in the other two groups. No obvious adverse reaction occurred in all the three groups.

CONCLUSIONRSC combined with Donepezil in treating AD is effective and safe with no evident adverse reaction, better than single drug treatment, which may be through influencing the metabolism of thyroid hormones to improve the cognition function of AD patients.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Alzheimer Disease ; drug therapy ; Animals ; Capsules ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Female ; Humans ; Indans ; therapeutic use ; Male ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Middle Aged ; Nootropic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Piperidines ; therapeutic use ; Radioimmunoassay ; Sea Cucumbers ; chemistry ; Thyroid Hormones ; blood

Animals ; Dementia, Vascular ; drug therapy ; physiopathology ; Hippocampus ; metabolism ; physiopathology ; Learning ; drug effects ; Male ; Memory ; drug effects ; Nootropic Agents ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Pyrrolidinones ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Acetylcholine ; metabolism ; Animals ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Brain ; metabolism ; Ginsenosides ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Hippocampus ; cytology ; Memory ; drug effects ; Neuronal Plasticity ; drug effects ; Nootropic Agents ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Panax ; chemistry ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry

OBJECTIVETo observe the clinical therapeutic effect of Shuizhitong capsule (SZT) in treating senile vascular dementia (VD) and on changes of related physio-chemical criteria.

METHODSEighty-five patients with VD were randomly divided into the treated group (n = 51) and the control group (n = 34) in the ratio of 3:2, treated with SZT and Piracetam respectively. Before and after treatment, the Zhang's Dementia Scoring (HDS) and Function of Social Activity Questionnaire (FAQ) scoring, cerebral blood flow and hemorrheologic properties were determined.

RESULTSSZT could significantly improve the patients' clinical symptoms, intracranial hemodynamic condition and the hyperviscosity, hypercoagulation and hyperaggregation status, lower the whole blood and plasma specific viscosity, raise the living standard of partial patients, with significant difference between before and after treatment (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe therapeutic effect of SZT in treating senile VD is definite.

Aged ; Blood Viscosity ; drug effects ; Capsules ; Cerebrovascular Circulation ; drug effects ; Dementia, Vascular ; drug therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Hemorheology ; drug effects ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nootropic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Phytotherapy