An existing constipation drug may help boost one's ability to think more clearly in just a few days, according to research.
A News-Medical.net report said the formulation of the drugs to cure cognitive problems in patients suffering from mental illness may be a step closer after a group of scientists found that an existing medication for constipation may be able to enhance one's mental state.
Severe psychiatric problems can have a devastating effect on the life of a patient. Cognitive disorders, ranging from lessened attention and working memory to disturbed social cognition and language are prevalent in psychiatric conditions like major depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
Such common issues are inadequately treated with existing medications and frequently have a huge effect on the lives of people, and so researchers are looking for ways on enhancing or restoring these roles.
For the Improvement of Cognitive Function
Previous research on animals has found that the drugs targeting one of the serotonin receptors, specifically the 5-HT4 receptor, described in the National Library of Medicine, have exhibited promise in the improvement of cognitive function.
Nevertheless, it has been a challenge to translate such animal findings into humans due to worries about adverse effects.
Now a team of United Kingdom researchers has examined an existing approved drug, specifically prucalopride, which targets the 5-HT4 receptor and discovered that it may enhance cognition.
Primarily, prucalopride, as explained in WebMD, is fundamentally prescribed for constipation, and has a suitable degree of side effects if taken under medical supervision.
More than 40 healthy volunteer participants aged 18 to 36 years old took part in the trial. Out of 44 participants, 23 were provided with prucalopride while 21 received a placebo.
Six days after, all the participants went through an fMRI brain scan. Before they entered the MRI scanner, volunteer participants were shown a set of images of landscapes and animals. They saw this again on top of the same images during the scanning procedure.
Memory Test Performed
Following the scan, volunteers went through a memory test. As such, they were asked to determine the images they had previously seen and during the scan from a series of totally new images.
Presenting work during the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology conference in the conference in Lisbon, Dr. Angharad de Cates, the study's lead researcher from the University of Oxford said, volunteers who had been given prucalopride for six days performed much more effectively compared to those who were given placebo on the memory test.
As a result, the prucalopride group found 81 percent of previously seen images against 76 percent in the placebo group.
Statistical tests specified that this was a comparatively large impact, as an evident cognitive improvement with the constipation drug was a surprise, explained de Cates.
The study authors discovered that compared with volunteers who take the placebo, the volunteers who took prucalopride were both substantially better at a memory test following the scan, and had MRI scans as well, indicating enhanced activity in the brain sites associated with cognition.
The augmented activity was in sites linked to the memory, like the hippocampus, in the center of the brain, and the right angular gyrus towards the brain's rear part.
Related information about prucalopride is shown on RTI Health Solutions' YouTube video below:
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