ABSTRACT
Valeriana edulis ssp. procera, commonly known as "valeriana mexicana", is widely used in Mexican traditional medicine for the treatment of insomnia and anxiety. To evaluate the hypnotic effect and safety of 450 mg of Valeriana edulis standardized hydroalcoholic extract in patients with insomnia, a double-blind, cross-over, controlled study was carried out. Valeriana officinalis extract, at the same doses, was used as a positive control. In a sleep laboratory, polysomnographic (PSG) recordings were performed for analyzing the quantity and architecture of sleep as well as evaluating morning sleepiness, memory quotient, and side effects. The experimental procedures were conducted on four consecutive nights of 8 h each. Twenty patients were admitted. Based on the PSG results, V. edulis reduced the number of awaking episodes while both treatments increased the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep; this last parameter was better improved by V. officinalis extract. Other PSG data did not achieve outstanding statistical differences, but the clinical tendency with both treatments was to increase the sleep efficiency index. These Valeriana extracts produced beneficial effects on sleep architecture because they diminished the time of stages 1 and 2 in non-REM sleep while they increased delta sleep. Validated clinical tests showed that both species reduced notoriously the morning sleepiness, that was further improved by V. officinalis extract, and did not affect anterograde memory. In only three cases were slight side effects observed, one due to the experimental extract. Chemical analysis of the hydroalcoholic extract of V. edulis indicated that this extract contains 0.26 % of dihydroisovaltrate as the main valepotriate, and that it does not contain valerenic acid. In general, the results support the hypnotic effect and safety of acute treatment of Valeriana edulis and Valeriana officinalis on patients suffering insomnia.
Subject(s)
Phytotherapy , Plant Preparations/therapeutic use , Sesquiterpenes , Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders/drug therapy , Valerian , Adult , Anxiety/drug therapy , Cross-Over Studies , Double-Blind Method , Female , Humans , Indenes/chemistry , Male , Memory/drug effects , Middle Aged , Plant Preparations/chemistry , Polysomnography/methods , Reference Standards , Rhizome/chemistry , Sleep, REM/drug effectsABSTRACT
The aim of this single-blind study was to evaluate the residual effects of a 10-mg dose of diazepam on cortical activation 11 h after oral intake. The electroencephalographic segments (from O1-O2) delimited by a sequence of photic stimuli presented every 10 sec during a simple reaction-time task (36 min duration) were arbitrarily classified into nine cerebral patterns (EEGP). EEGP segment classifications were grouped into six peri-stimulus transitions expressed in percentages: alpha-blockade; alpha-persistence; beta-persistence; alpha-induction; activation and deactivation. A sample of 42 young healthy university students (21 females and 21 males) each underwent three counterbalanced experimental conditions (control, placebo and diazepam). Diazepam affected all the subjects, although the women showed a greater number of EEGP transitions which indicated deactivation, than did the men. The results show that this type of visual EEG analysis is a useful technique for detecting the residual effects of benzodiazepines.
Subject(s)
Brain/drug effects , Diazepam/pharmacology , Electroencephalography/drug effects , Hypnotics and Sedatives/pharmacology , Adult , Brain/physiology , Female , Humans , Male , Sex Factors , Single-Blind Method , Time Factors , Visual Perception/drug effects , Visual Perception/physiologyABSTRACT
A sample of 42 healthy young male human subjects was submitted to whole night polysomnography and attention performance tests upon awakening (simple visuomotor reaction time, RT, and time estimation, TE). In order to test whether performance is related to specific sleep parameters, the 15 fastest subjects (mean = 210 msec) and 15 slowest subjects (mean = 357 msec) in RT were compared in their TE and sleep parameters. Fast subjects were more precise in the estimation of 10 sec intervals (9.89; S.E. = 0.23 sec) than slow subjects (10.73; S.E. = 0.32). Slow subjects had significantly less delta sleep (mean = 73 min) than fast subjects (100 min, P less than 0.01) and otherwise similar sleep parameters. It can be suggested that attention after awakening is related to the amount of delta sleep in the night.
