Neuropsychological performance deficits in adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Neuropsychological deficits in children diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been well documented utilizing various neuropsychological tests. Only recently has research begun to examine if similar deficits are present in adults with ADHD. A neuropsychological testing battery was constructed that assessed verbal learning and memory, psychomotor speed, and sustained attention--all demonstrated to be deficient in individuals with ADHD. Fifty-six self-referred nonmedicated adults with a DSM-IV diagnosis of ADHD and 38 normal comparison adults participated. ADHD adults demonstrated verbal and nonverbal memory deficits and decreased psychomotor speed compared to normal controls. Differences between ADHD and normal adults were not documented on traditional measures of executive functioning. A pattern of results emerged whereby ADHD adults' performance, particularly with regard to psychomotor speed, became more impaired as task complexity increased. This study's results largely corroborate similar neuropsychological testing results in ADHD children and recent ADHD adult findings, and support a frontal lobe dysfunction hypothesis of ADHD.

[Neurophysiological analysis of the correction by nootropic substances of disorders in the bioelectric activity of the brain in animals during chronic administration of ethanol]. / Neirofiziologicheskii analiz korrektsii nootropnymi sredstvami narushenii bioélektricheskoi aktivnosti mozga zhivotnykh pri khronicheskom vvedenii étanola.

The influence of some drugs (piracetam and 3-oxypyridine derivative) having a nootropic effect on ethanol-induced changes of bioelectrical activity was studied in experiments on freely moving rats. Discontinuation of ethanol administration (1, 2 g/kg, i.p. for 40 days) has been found to provoke destructuring of Fourier's spectral power of sensorimotor cortex and dorsal hippocamp on the EEG. Long-term administration of piracetam or 3-oxypyridine derivative (300 and 50 mg/kg, respectively, i.p. for 40 days) with ethanol has a protective effect and normalizes EEG at the cortical level. The authors discuss possible neurophysiological mechanisms of nootropic drug action in ethanol-induced pathology.

[Psychotropic properties of nootropic substances with a cholinergic action component in single and long-term use]. / Psikhotropnye svoistva nootropnykh veshchestv s kholinergicheskim komponentom deistviia pri odnokratnom i dlitel'nom primenenii.

Long-term administration of centrophenoxine and cleregil was found to exert on rats the antiamnestic and anxiogenic-like effects, to increase emotional reactivity and aggressiveness, to reduce motor activity and readiness to contact. The withdrawal of centrophenoxine and especially cleregil was followed by still greater enhancement of emotional reactivity and the appearance of spontaneous aggressiveness.

[Dissociative state in rats induced by ethanol and possibilities of the pharmacological correction of this phenomenon]. / "Dissotsiirovannoe sostoianie" u krys, vyzvannoe étanolom, i vozmozhnosti farmakologicheskoi korrektsii dannogo fenomena [correction of fermenta].

It was shown that a state of dependent learning (SDL) developed in response to ethanol (1.2 g/kg) during experimental learning of rats in conditions of T-maze. Piracetam, lithium hydroxybutyrate, litonit and new oxypyridine derivative 3-OP given in combination with ethanol prevented the development of SDL and reduced an already formed SDL. The above-mentioned combinations made the learning more difficult. It is assumed that changes in the activity of dopaminergic system, as well as membranotropic and antioxidant effects of the investigated drugs play the most important role in the mechanisms of SDL reduction.

[Effects of piracetam during prolonged use in an experiment]. / Effekty piratsetama pri dlitel'nom primenenii v éksperimente.

The spectrum of the pharmacological activity of piracetam administered for a long time was studied in experiments on mice and rats. It was established that administration of piracetam (300-400 mg/kg i. p.) for 10-42 days brought about potentiation of its antiamnestic effect, retardation of the processes of extinction, an increase in the emotional responsiveness, and preservation of the tranquilizing effect with no side effects (sedative or myorelaxant). The characteristic feature of piracetam effect on the extinction is its ability to decelerate this process only after its prolonged administration. It is assumed that under prolonged administration of piracetam there takes place the formation of a new functional system ensuring the memory trace stabilization.

[Role of cholinergic systems in the formation of a dissociated state in response to kleregil]. / Rol' kholinergicheskikh sistem v formirovanii dissotsiirovannogo sostoianiia k kleregilu.

During learning in a T-maze, rats administered cleregil (150 mg/kg, i.p.) developed a dissociated state where the reflex manifested itself only after the substance injection and did not occur without it. Atropine, amizil, alpha-methyl-DOPA and piracetam were established to be able to replace cleregil, thus restoring the conditioned reflex upset by cleregil withdrawal, as well as to eliminate the manifestations of aggressiveness, fear and anxiety caused by prolonged injection of cleregil. Meanwhile depakin and beta-ethyl-diphacil had no effect on behavioral abnormalities, whereas arecoline made them more demonstrable. It is assumed that M-cholinergic system plays the most important role in the mechanism by which the dissociated state is formed.