dir@cbosgd.UUCP (11/22/83)
Has anyone had personal experience with Hydergine or Vasopressin?
These are memory and intelligence enhancing drugs, although they
are not approved for that use by the FDA. They are supposed
to produce significant improvements in mental functioning.
I know a doctor amenable to prescribing them, but before I
dive in, I'd like to hear more about the possible harmful effects.
(They are supposed to be risk-free for most healthy people.)
Dean Radin - Bell Labs - cbosgd!dirsdyer@bbncca.ARPA (11/23/83)
References: <634@cbosgd.UUCP> Relay-Version:version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site duke.UUCP Posting-Version:version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA Path:duke!decvax!bbncca!sdyer Message-ID:<341@bbncca.ARPA> Date:Wed, 23-Nov-83 01:49:30 EST Organization:Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma. Hydergine has been around for a while, advertised heavily to doctors serving older people as a drug that does amorphously beneficial things to elderly people who have amorphously dysfunctional behavior. Its status with the FDA is pretty shaky, and it's a wonder that it's been able to stay on the market for so long. Vasopressin and its congeners would probably have to be used as a nasal spray, since they are digested rapidly when taken orally. I've always heard that vasopressin facilitates learning in rats, but I don't know how that might extend to most human learning. I would also expect that generally administering this to otherwise normal patients might not be a good idea, for two reasons. First, vasopressin is also known as ADH-- anti-diuretic hormone. This is the substance secreted by the pituitary which regulates the permeability of the kidney to water. In fact, the reason alcohol has a diuretic effect is that it inhibits the secretion of ADH by the pituitary. So, gratuitous doses of ADH to normal patients would at least cause water retention, and maybe other bad effects. Second, its name, "vasopressin", comes from its other effects on the body. It raises blood pressure, and can precipitate angina attacks in susceptible persons. I would be interested to read controlled studies of either of these drugs on human behavior and learning, but I suspect that the evidence is still a bit shaky to recommend them. -- /Steve Dyer decvax!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca
jbray@bbncca.ARPA (James Bray) (11/26/83)
I think there was some work done with vasopressin and perhaps ACTH (adreno-cortico-trophic-hormone) being given intranasally to human subjects and I think showing some sort of performance enhancements. It sounded interesting, but I have heard of similar work done with b-vitamins, amphetamines, caffeine, nicotene, etc. The real question is whether the enhancements that are produced are really just a side-effect of general activation and reinforcement or are specific to cognitive mechanisms, and if there is, as with amphetamines, a price to be paid. I had never heard of Hydergine before, but would be interest to know more about it or anything else in this area of research. For example, there was a fellow at some Midwestern university who claimed to have come up with a compound which was quite consistently and positively memory-enhancing. I read about this several times in the papers, but it never showed up in Scientific American, and I never heard any more about it. Anyone know anything about it? --Jim Bray UUCP decvax!bbncca!jbray ARPA jbray@bbncca
jbray@bbncca.ARPA (11/26/83)
References: <634@cbosgd.UUCP> <341@bbncca.ARPA> Relay-Version:version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site duke.UUCP Posting-Version:version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA Path:duke!decvax!genrad!wjh12!bbncca!jbray Message-ID:<347@bbncca.ARPA> Date:Fri, 25-Nov-83 17:55:53 EST Organization:Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma. I think there was some work done with vasopressin and perhaps ACTH (adreno-cortico-trophic-hormone) being given intranasally to human subjects and I think showing some sort of performance enhancements. It sounded interesting, but I have heard of similar work done with b-vitamins, amphetamines, caffeine, nicotene, etc. The real question is whether the enhancements that are produced are really just a side-effect of general activation and reinforcement or are specific to cognitive mechanisms, and if there is, as with amphetamines, a price to be paid. I had never heard of Hydergine before, but would be interest to know more about it or anything else in this area of research. For example, there was a fellow at some Midwestern university who claimed to have come up with a compound which was quite consistently and positively memory-enhancing. I read about this several times in the papers, but it never showed up in Scientific American, and I never heard any more about it. Anyone know anything about it? --Jim Bray UUCP decvax!bbncca!jbray ARPA jbray@bbncca