Effect of two weeks' treatment with chlorimipramine and nortriptyline, alone or in combination with alcohol, on learning and memory

✍ Scribed by R. Liljequist; M. Linnoila; M. J. Mattila

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1974
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 329 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0033-3158
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00440847

✦ Synopsis

Twenty male students were treated double blind cross over with nortriptyline, chlorimipramine, or placebo for two weeks. On the 14th day of treatment the effect of drugs and their interaction with alcohol was tested in 2 kinds of learning situations. The presence of the antidepressants in plasma was checked by means of the tyramine pressor test.

Alcohol alone significantly increased the numbers of mistakes in paired associated learning test. Nortriptyline alone slightly increased the numbers of mistakes in paired associated learning test and impaired backward recall of digits. Chlorimipramine alone had no measurable effect on learning or memory.

Nortriptyline enhanced the deleterious effect of alcohol on the ability to learn new material, whereas chlorimipramine antagonized alcohol in this respect. Both antidepressants significamtly shifted the dose-response graph for the tyramine effect on systolic blood pressure to the right.