Abstract
Background: Calcium channel blockers are amongst the commonly used drugs in the treatment of cardiovascular disorders. They produce their action by blocking voltage regulated calcium channels. Methodolgy: Present study evaluated the effects of three structurally dissimilar calcium channel blockers Nitrendipine (a dihydropyridine) in a single dose of 10 mg and 20 mg, Diltiazem (a benzothiazepine) in a single dose of 30 mg and 60 mg and Verapamil (a phenylalkylamine) in a single dose of 40 mg and 80 mg on psychomotor performance in human volunteers. For evaluation of psychomotor performance, the tests used were arithmetic ability, verbal learning, letter cancellation, digit symbol substitution and card sorting test. Results: Nitrendipine both in low dose (10mg) and high dose (20mg) as well as Diltiazem in high dose (60mg) and Verapamil in high dose (80mg) were found to impair the psychomotor performance in human volunteers to a statistically significant extent in all the tests employed except letter cancellation test. Whereas Diltiazem in low dose (30mg) and Verapamil in low dose (40mg) showed statistically significant impairment of psychomotor performance using arithmetic ability, verbal learning, and digit symbol substitution test. Conclusion: Thus calcium channel blockers namely Nitrendipine, Diltiazem and Verapamil significantly impaired the psychomotor performance of human volunteers in our study. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v12i1.11534 Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 12 No. 01 January13 pp.43-48
Highlights
Calcium channel antagonists constitute a heterogenous class of agents with unrelated structural, electrophysiological and pharmacological properties[1].Structurally different Calcium channel blockers including Nitrendipine, Diltiazem and Verapamil show varied sensitivity towards Calcium channels at different sites in the body
The present study evaluated the effects of Nitrendipine 10mg and 20mg, Diltiazem 30mg and 60mg and Verapamil 40mg and 80mg on psychomotor performance in normal healthy human volunteers using conventional psychomotor performance tests
Results of the present study showed Nitrendipine in single low dose 10mg as well as in single high dose 20mg significantly impaired psychomotor performance in volunteers using arithmetic ability test, verbal learning test, digital symbol substitution test and card sorting test (P
Summary
Calcium channel antagonists constitute a heterogenous class of agents with unrelated structural, electrophysiological and pharmacological properties[1].Structurally different Calcium channel blockers including Nitrendipine, Diltiazem and Verapamil show varied sensitivity towards Calcium channels at different sites in the body. With this background the present study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of three structurally dissimilar Calcium channel blockers Nitrendipine (second generation Calcium channel blocker) Diltiazem and Verapamil in single low and high dosages on psychomotor performance in normal healthy human
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