TY - JOUR
TI - Cognitive effects of pregabalin in the treatment of long-term
benzodiazepine-use and dependence
AU - Oulis, Panagiotis
AU - Kalogerakou, Stamatina
AU - Anyfandi, Eleni and
AU - Konstantakopoulos, George
AU - Papakosta, Vassiliki-Maria
AU - Masdrakis,
AU - Vasilios
AU - Tsaltas, Eleftheria
JO - Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental
PY - 2014
VL - 29
TODO - 3
SP - 224-229
PB - Wiley-Blackwell
SN - 0885-6222, 1099-1077
TODO - 10.1002/hup.2391
TODO - benzodiazepine dependence; pregabalin; cognition
TODO - ObjectiveLong-term benzodiazepine (BDZ) use and dependence affect
cognitive functioning adversely and partly irreversibly. Emerging
evidence suggests that pregabalin (PGB) might be a safe and efficacious
treatment of long-term BDZ use. The aim of the present study was to
investigate the changes in several core cognitive functions after
successful treatment of long-term BDZ use and dependence with PGB.
MethodsFourteen patients with long-term BDZ use (mean duration >15years)
underwent neuropsychological assessment with the mini-mental state
examination and four tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test
Automated Battery (CANTAB) battery before the initiation of PGB
treatment and at a two months follow-up after the cessation of BDZs.
Patients’ CANTAB percentile score distributions were compared with
normative CANTAB data.
ResultsPatients improved on cognitive measures of global cognitive
functioning, time orientation, psychomotor speed, and visuospatial
memory and learning with strong effect sizes. By contrast, they failed
to improve on measures of attentional flexibility. Despite their
significant improvement, patients’ scores on most tests remained still
at the lower percentiles of CANTAB normative scores.
ConclusionsAlthough preliminary, our findings suggest that successful
treatment of long-term BDZ use with PGB is associated with a
substantial, though only partial, recovery of BDZ-compromised
neuropsychological functioning, at least at a 2-month follow-up.
Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ER -