ergoline and Brain-Diseases

Topics: Adult; Age Factors; Brain Diseases; Child; Child, Preschool; Diagnosis, Differential; Electroencephalography; Epilepsy; Ergolines; Ergotamine; Female; Humans; Hypersensitivity; Hypothalamus; Maleates; Methysergide; Migraine Disorders; Personality; Serotonin; Stress, Psychological; Time Factors

To reverse the profile of abnormal intracortical excitability in patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS) by administering the dopaminergic agonist cabergoline.. The effects of this drug on motor cortex excitability were examined with a range of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) protocols before and after administration of cabergoline over a period of 4 weeks in 14 patients with RLS and in 15 healthy volunteers. Measures of cortical excitability included central motor conduction time; resting and active motor threshold to TMS; duration of the cortical silent period; short latency intracortical inhibition (SICI) and intracortical facilitation using a paired-pulse TMS technique.. Short latency intracortical inhibition was significantly reduced in RLS patients compared with the controls and this abnormal profile was reversed by treatment with cabergoline; the other TMS parameters did not differ significantly from the controls and remained unaffected after treatment with cabergoline. Cabergoline had no effect on cortical excitability of the normal subjects.. As dopaminergic drugs are known to increase SICI, our findings suggest that RLS may be caused by a central nervous system dopaminergic dysfunction. This study demonstrates that the cortical hyperexcitability of RLS is reversed by cabergoline, and provides physiological evidence that this dopamine agonist may be a potentially efficacious option for the treatment of RLS.

Topics: Adult; Aged; Brain Diseases; Cabergoline; Dopamine; Dopamine Agonists; Ergolines; Female; Humans; Male; Membrane Potentials; Middle Aged; Motor Cortex; Neural Conduction; Neural Inhibition; Neurons; Pyramidal Tracts; Reaction Time; Restless Legs Syndrome; Synaptic Transmission; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; Treatment Outcome

Lesion of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway in the rat by 6-hydroxydopamine enhances the ability of pergolide to increase striatal acetylcholine levels and prevents the haloperidol-induced decrease in acetylcholine concentrations. This supersensitive response of striatal cholinergic cells is already maximal 6 days after lesion but tends to decrease thereafter. As the time course of the development of the supersensitivity of cholinergic cells differs from that of increased dopamine binding site density, the two are probably not causally related, the former reflecting rather a change occurring beyond the dopamine recognition site.

Topics: Acetylcholine; Animals; Brain Diseases; Corpus Striatum; Dopamine; Ergolines; Haloperidol; Male; Pergolide; Rats; Rats, Inbred Strains; Receptors, Dopamine; Substantia Nigra

In rats with a unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesion of the nigrostriatal system we compared the behavioral effects of pergolide with those of L-dopa, bromocriptine, and lergotrile. In this animal model of parkinsonism, doses of 0.25 mg per kilogram pergolide (free base) induced vigorous circling for 24 hours. Pergolide was more potent than bromocriptine or lergotrile. Pretreatment with alpha-methylparatyrosine nearly abolished the effects of bromocriptine, markedly diminished the effects of lergotrile, and only partially diminished the effects of pergolide. These findings suggest that pergolide should be more effective than bromocriptine in the treatment of parkinsonism.

Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Brain Diseases; Bromocriptine; Ergolines; Female; Hydroxydopamines; Oxidopamine; Parkinson Disease; Pergolide; Rats; Rats, Inbred Strains

Topics: Brain Diseases; Chlorpromazine; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; Electroencephalography; Epilepsy; Ergolines; Humans; Iproniazid; Parasympatholytics