Meige's disease is a bizarre, often disabling movement disorder of the elderly characterised by symmetric dystonic contractions of the orofacial muscles; at times other midline muscles such as the tongue and the palatopharyngeal, respiratory, and neck muscles may be affected.' 2 Although the spasms are often thought to be psychogenic in origin, there exists no convincing evidence that they repr...

Nootropics or smart drugs are well-known compounds or supplements that enhance the cognitive performance. They work by increasing the mental function such as memory, creativity, motivation, and attention. Recent researches were focused on establishing a new potential nootropic derived from synthetic and natural products. The influence of nootropic in the brain has been studied widely. The nootr...

The glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is a secreted protein, best known for its role in the development of the central and peripheral nervous systems and the survival of adult dopaminergic neurons. More recently, accumulating evidence suggests that GDNF plays a unique role in negatively regulating the actions of drugs of abuse. In this article, we review these data and highligh...

The magnitude and pattern of motor responses to single doses of subcutaneous apomorphine and oral levodopa were compared in 14 patients with Parkinson's disease. Although apomorphine produced much shorter motor responses than levodopa, the quality of response to the two drugs was virtually indistinguishable. These clinical observations support the notion that integrity of striatal post-synaptic...

Effective control of parkinsonian symptoms can be achieved in a substantial number of patients by the judicious use of dopaminergic agents. To a considerable extent these drugs produce optimal therapeutic effects during the first 3-5 years of their use. Subsequently, efficacy diminishes with reemergence of parkinsonian symptoms as well as a number of untoward responses. The nature, frequency an...

Dopamine (DA) and noradrenaline (NA) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) modulate superior cognitive functions, and are involved in the aetiology of depressive and psychotic symptoms. Moreover, microdialysis studies in rats have shown how pharmacological treatments that induce modifications of extracellular NA in the medial PFC (mPFC), also produce parallel changes in extracellular DA.To explain the...

BACKGROUND Agomelatine, the first melatonergic antidepressant, has been postulated to enhance the dopaminergic activity at the central nervous system by 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor type 2C (5-HT2C) antagonism, yet the impact of melatonergic agonism on this pathway is unclear. Previous studies employing simplified, yet reliable, proxy (retinal) measures of the central nervous system dopaminergi...

Cyclooxygenase (COX) expression in the brain is associated with pro-inflammatory activities, which are instrumental in neurodegenerative processes such as Parkinson's disease (PD). It is discussed that drugs with the capacity to rescue dopaminergic neurons from microglia toxicity and neuroinflammatory processes may result in an amelioration of parkinsonian symptoms by delaying the onset or slow...

Effect of pretreatment of intraperitoneally administered Ca-channel blockers Nifedipine (5, 10, 20 mg/kg). Verapamil (5, 10, 20 mg/kg) and Diltiazem (5, 10, 20 mg/kg) was studied on Haloperidol-induced catalepsy and Methamphetamine-induced stereotypy in albino rats. All these drugs reduced the onset of catalepsy, significantly increased the cataleptic score and delayed the onset and inhibited t...

Extra pontine myelinolysis (EPM) is a form of osmotic demyelination syndrome, characterized by the presence of signal alterations in varied sites in the brain other than the pons. When caudate and putamen are involved, it results in a constellation of extra pyramidal signs and symptoms resembling parkinsonism. Here we report a case of this unique syndrome presenting with features of parkinsonis...