British researchers have found an effective solution to fight against cognitive disorders. And that would go through a constipation drug.
A discovery to say the least unusual. Many people suffer from cognitive disorders which generally result in memory loss, language difficulties or learning difficulties. According to a recent discovery, these problems could be cured with a medication for… constipation. No, you’re not dreaming !
British researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford have just published the results ofa study in the magazine Translational Psychiatry. They tested prucalopride, a serotonin receptor molecule, on 44 volunteers, aged 18 to 36. Half of them received this molecule and the other half, a placebo. A week after their injection, the scientists showed the volunteers a series of images of animals and landscapes, before giving them an MRI to check their brain activity.
Conclusive results
After leaving the MRI, each person had to take memory tests. And the results are conclusive. “The main conclusion of our study is that six days of administration of prucalopride to healthy young volunteers led to improved memory and increased neural activity in the hippocampi”, explain the authors of the study. “The prucalopride group identified 81% of the images. The control group, 76%. Statistically, this seems very significant to us”, they add.
Prucalopride is used in the symptomatic treatment of constipation, when it is chronic. In France, this molecule is found in the laxative Resolor. This drug has been sold on prescription for several years and is mainly reserved for women, for whom laxatives do not have the expected effects. According to a pharmacist interviewed through Sciences and the Future, this drug is not often prescribed by doctors because it is not reimbursed by Social Security.