The effects of reboxetine and amitriptyline, with and without alcohol on cognitive function and psychomotor performance

Abstract

Reboxetine is a novel antidepressant that has been shown to be effective in the treatment of major depressive disorders. The present experiment was designed to assess whether it affects the cognitive and psychomotor skills necessary for optimum function in everyday life. Ten healthy male volunteers received reboxetine 0.5 mg, 1 mg or 4 mg, amitriptyline 25 mg, or matched placebo with and without alcohol (0.6 mg kg−1) in a double-blind 10-way crossover study. A psychometric test battery was administered at baseline and at 1, 2.25, 3.5, 6 and 9 h post-dose. The results showed that reboxetine had little or no effect on performance at any dose, compared with placebo. Amitriptyline, however, with and without alcohol, lowered critical flicker fusion threshold compared with placebo and/or reboxetine at all test points (e.g. at 3.5 h: 28.51 vs 30.33 Hz; P<0.05); increased reaction time (e.g. 619 vs 540 ms; P<0.05); increased tracking error (e.g. 16.34 vs 8.54 RMS units; P<0.05); and slowed short-term memory scanning (e.g. 742 vs 590 ms; P<0.05). It is concluded that reboxetine at doses of 4 mg and below is free from disruptive effects on cognitive function and psychomotor performance, and that it does not act synergistically with alcohol, in contrast to amitriptyline.

Reboxetine, a selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor, is non-sedative and does not impair psychomotor performance in healthy subjects

“…It is unclear why, in contrast to the results of the other tests employed, this study failed to dierentiate between reboxetine and imipramine in the critical¯icker fusion test. In a previous placebocontrolled study in healthy volunteers, reboxetine 4 mg had no eect in this test whereas the tricyclic antidepressant, amitriptyline showed impairment (Kerr et al, 1996). The Steadiness performance test did show dierences between reboxetine and imipramine consistent with the dierential receptor-binding pro®les of these two agents.…”

“…As earlier studies have indicated that reboxetine is not as sedating as tricyclic antidepressants (Kerr et al, 1996) it was decided that traditional evaluations could not be used alone to determine its psychotropic potential. Thus, classi®cation would need to be based on evaluation of a combination of variables such as EEG, behavioural and medical parameters.…”

“…Previous studies which assessed the eects of antidepressants on EEG (electroencephalography) records (Itil, 1982;Herrmann, 1982) were designed to detect the sedative properties of these agents. As early studies have indicated that reboxetine is not as sedating as tricyclic antidepressants (Kerr et al, 1996) such tests would be inappropriate. A more detailed and appropriate investigation would evaluate the eects of the drug at a functional electrophysiological level as well as a behavioural level.…”

The effects of noradrenergic re-uptake inhibition on memory encoding in man

“…Accordingly, few effects on heart rate and blood pressure were expected. Furthermore, no cognitive or psychomotor impairments have been observed with reboxetine in clinical studies (Kerr et al 1996), or in studies with healthy adults (Herman and Fuder 1998) making it a good candidate for use in the assessment the role of the noradrenergic system in memory functioning.…”

Benzodiazepine‐induced reduction in activity mirrors decrements in cognitive and psychomotor performance

“…This test is a divided attention interactive task of psychomotor performance [43][44][45]. Volunteers were required to keep a cursor in alignment with a moving target on a computer screen using a mouse, whilst simultaneously responding to a peripheral stimulus.…”