| Disease | A DOUBLE BLIND, PLACEBO CONTROLLED, 14 WEEK, PARALLEL GROUP, REPEATED ASSESSMENT, MULTICENTRE TRIAL OF A COMBINATION OF GINKGO BILOBA AND PANAX GINSENG ON CONGNITIVE FUNCTION IN HEALTHY MIDDLE AGED VOLUNTEERS. TWO DOSING REGIMENS WERE COMPARED.
1602 MG B.I.D. AND 320 MG O.D. TWO-HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX HEALTHY MIDDLE AGED VOLUNTEERS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED THE STUDY. ON EACH STUDY DAY (WEEKS 0, 4, 8, 12, AND 14) THE VOLUNTEERS PERFORMED THE COGNITIVE DRUG RESEARCH COMPUTERIZED COGNITIVE
ASSESSMENT SYSTEM PRIOR TO MORNING DOSING AND AGAIN AT 1, 3 AND 6 HOURS LATER. THE TESTS IN THE SYSTEM ASSESSED VARIOUS ASPECTS OF ATTENTION AND MEMORY. ON EACH STUDY DAY THE VOLUNTEERS ALSO COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRE ABOUT THE MOOD STATES,
QUALITY OF LIFE AND SLEEP QUALITY. THE GINKGO/GINSENG COMBINATION WAS FOUND TO SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE AN INDEX OF MEMORY QUALITY, SUPPORTING THE PREVIOUS FINDING WITH THE COMPOUND. NO EVIDENCE OF A BI-PHASIC EFFECT WAS SEEN, THE EFFECTS BEING
AS MARKED IN THE AFTERNOON AS THEY WERE IN THE MORNING. THUS THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS SEEN PREVIOUSLY WERE EITHER CHANCE EFFECTS OR EFFECTS SPECIFIC TO PATIENTS WITH NEURASHENIA. THE BENEFICIAL EFFECTS REPRESENTED AN AVERAGE IMPROVEMENT OF 7.5% AND
REFLECTED IMPROVEMENTS TO A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF MEMORY INCLUDING WORKING AND LONG-TERM MEMORY. THIS ENHANCEMENT TO MEMORY WAS SEEN THROUGHOUT THE 12 WEEKS DOSING PERIOD AND ALSO AFTER A TWO WEEK WASH-OUT. THE COMBINATION WAS WELL
TOLERATED BY THE VOLUNTEERS. THIS IS ONE OF THE FIRST DEMONSTRATIONS THAT PHYTOPHARMACEUTICALS CAN BENEFICIALLY AFFECT THE MEMORY OF HEALTHY MIDDLE AGED VOLUNTEERS. |