Acute nicotine administration in Alzheimer's disease: an exploratory EEG study.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Previous findings of cognitive deficits and EEG slowing in Alzheimer's patients, together with independent reports of the performance enhancing and electrocortical activating properties of nicotine in normal adults, stimulated this study to examine the acute effects of nicotine on spectrum-analyzed EEG in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT).

Why It Was Studied

Compared to age-regressed EEG norms, the pretreatment EEG spectrums of patients in general were characterized by excessive slow (delta and theta)-wave power, diminished fast (alpha and beta)-wave power and slow mean alpha and total band frequencies.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover and pilot.

Because people in this Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

As a double-blind Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) could be set against what happens without it.

In the crossover set-up each of the participants took both Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Alpha Rhythm, Alzheimer Disease, Beta Rhythm, Brain Mapping, Cholinesterase Inhibitors, Delta Rhythm and Electroencephalography.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

The publication is from 2000 (Neuropsychobiology), a journal based in Switzerland.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, all human trials.