OBJECTIVE Breath holding spells (BHS) are common paroxysmal non-epileptic events in the pediatric population which are very stressfull despite their harmless nature. There has been no specific treatment found for the spells yet. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of piracetam (2-oxo-l-pyrrolidine) on these children. MATERIALS & METHODS In this randomized double blind clinical ...

BACKGROUND Piracetam has been proven to be effective and well tolerated in the treatment of myoclonus in short-term studies. OBJECTIVE To assess its long-term clinical efficacy, 11 patients with disabling myoclonus due to progressive myoclonus epilepsy were treated with piracetam in an open-label study. METHODS Neurologic outcome (at the 1st, 6th, 12th, and 18th month of treatment) was asse...

"As a prototype of the Nootropics piracetam is effective on the higher integrative noetic functions on the central nervous system and was or rather is predestined for the use in gerontopsychiatry. Protective and adaptive capacities extend the range of indications on ischaemic brain damage, periphero-vascular diseases, alcohol withdrawal symptom, myoclonus and vertigo. But the effect on defectiv...

Mitochondrial oxidative stress followed by membrane permeability transition (MPT) has been considered as a possible mechanism for statins cytotoxicity. Statins use has been associated with reduced risk of cancer incidence, especially prostate cancer. Here we investigated the pathways leading to simvastatin-induced prostate cancer cell death as well as the mechanisms of cell death protection by ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In a prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, it was investigated whether piracetam improves language recovery in poststroke aphasia assessed by neuropsychological tests and activation PET measurement of cerebral blood flow. METHODS Twenty-four stroke patients with aphasia were randomly allocated to 2 groups: 12 patients received 2400 mg piracetam twice dail...

Amyloid peptide (Abeta) is a 40/42-residue proteolytic fragment of a precursor protein (APP), implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. The hypothesis that interactions between Abeta aggregates and neuronal membranes play an important role in toxicity has gained some acceptance. Previously, we showed that the C-terminal domain (e.g. amino acids 29-42) of Abeta induces membrane perm...

Cannabis sativa preparations are the most commonly used illicit drugs worldwide. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of Cannabis sativa extract in the working memory version of the Morris water maze (MWM; Morris, 1984[43]) test and determine the effect of standard memory enhancing drugs. Cannabis sativa was given at doses of 5, 10 or 20 mg/kg (expressed as Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabino...

Following the indications of previous work, 2-pyrrolidinone moiety of piracetam and piracetam-like compounds has been opened to the corresponding amide derivatives. As found previously in the case of 1,4-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]nonan-9-one compounds, the cognition-enhancing activity of 2-pyrrolidinone compounds is maintained in most cases, suggesting that this moiety is not crucial for activity.

Alzheimer's disease is considered the most common cause of dementia. At present, no definite cure is available for healing the disorders and stopping the disease progress. The aim of this study is to study the effects of piracetam, rivastigmine and their joint consumption on MMSE score status in patients with Alzheimer disease. This interventional study was carried out on 64 patients with ...

Pre-clinical and clinical studies have suggested that sleep loss is a predisposing factor for neurodegeneration and memory impairments linked with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and about 45% of AD patients show sleep disturbances. Sleep deprivation (SD) alters immuno-inflammatory, oxidantantioxidant enzymes balance and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) pathways which play significant role in ...