A Comparative study of piracetam, donepezil and captopril on short- and long-term memory in mice

Abstract

Background: Nootropics are primarily used in the management of cognitive impairments, improvement of mental alertness, as well as boosting of energy levels in clinical patients. They are also used casually by healthy individuals to improve performance and gain competitive edge on certain cognitive-demanding tasks.

Objective: The study examined the effect of some selected nootropics on short term memory (STM), and long term memory (LTM) with the aim of comparing their effectiveness.

Methods: Animals used in the study comprised of Swiss albino mice weighing between 20-25 g, which were randomly shared into four treatment groups (Normal Saline, Piracetam, Captopril and Donepezil) and treated accordingly. The memory enhancing activity of each drug was tested using the Barnes maze model.

Results: The result on short-term memory evaluation reveal that donepezil produced a significant memory retention effect compared with captopril (p<0.05). The results also show that there was no significant difference in the performance recorded between donepezil and piracetam (p>0.05) on memory retention. The results further show that donepezil produced a significant improvement in long-term memory than both piracetam and captopril (p<0.05).

Conclusion: This study was able to establish that the memory enhancing effect of donepezil is significantly higher than those of piracetam and captopril. This pharmacological effect may be partly attributed to the longer haif-life it possesses compared to piracetam and captopril.