Publisher's Synopsis
"Tranquilizers and Stress: Adaptive Action Mechanisms" describes investigations into the effect of stress protectors from among a number of tranquilizers belonging to the benzodiazepine and non-benzodiazepine series, on the bioenergentics of the brain. The study reveals differences in the mechanism of action of these two groups of drugs; for example, the effect of the drugs on the content of nicotinamide coenzymes, also the activity of some tissue respiration enzymes.;"Present-day Problems in Experimental Psychopharmacology of Nootropic Drugs" reviews the main lines of investigation in the experimental psychopharmacology of nootropic agents, pursued recently at the Institute of Pharmacology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. It offers a new classification of nootropic agents and sheds light on the methodology of investigating them, based on modelling disorders of the brain's intergrative activity, mnemonic functions and resistance to extreme factors. There is a comparative psychopharmacological description of the chief nootropic drugs: piracetam, meclofenoxate, pyrithinol, deanol aceglumate, as well as GABA preparations, nicergoline and others. The importance of neurophysiological mechanisms, of changes in elicited potentials and EEG power spectra of different brain structures in the action of nootropic drugs is shown. Data on new substances with a nootropic effect (antioxidants of 3-hydroxypyridine derivatives) are also presented.
