Phosphatidylserine: an antidepressive or a cognitive enhancer?
by
Castilho JC, Perry JC, Andreatini R, Vital MA.
Departamento de Farmacologia,
Centro Politecnico-Setor de Ciencias Biologicas,
Universidade Federal do Parana, Av.
Francisco H. dos Santos s/n,
PO Box 19031, 81531-990,
Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2004 Jul;28(4):731-8

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the putative antidepressive and cognitive enhancer effects of phosphatidylserine (BC-PS). The antidepressive effect of BC-PS (50, 100 or 200 mg/kg), compared to saline or imipramine (IMI; 25 mg/kg), was studied in the forced swimming test in rats. These drugs were administered 1 and 8 h after training and 1 h before the test. BC-PS (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg)-treated rats exhibited a significant decrease in immobility time (IT) in the test session (performed 24 h after training) when compared to control rats. Moreover, the IMI-treated group showed a significant reduction in IT in comparison to control rats. The cognitive enhancer effect of BC-PS (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg) was studied in the three versions of the water maze task: spatial working memory version, spatial reference memory version, and cued version. There was no significant difference between the BC-PS-treated groups and control animals in these memory tasks. Taken together, the present results are suggestive of an antidepressive effect of BC-PS in the forced swimming test in rats but not of a cognitive enhancer effect of the drug in the water maze test.

Tacrine
Lecithin
Acetylcholine
New brain cells
Phosphatidylserine
The memory switch?
Dumb-drug euphoria
Growing new brain cells
Cholinergic precursor therapy

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