Pharmacological effects of some medicaments on the human brain.

Abstract

The methodological problems of measuring the effect of drugs on cerebral blood flow (CBF) are examined. In animals these include choice of species, technique of measurement, route of administration and whether the drug crosses the blood-brain barrier. Additional factors in man are age, short or long-term effects, tendency for repeated measurements to give lower readings and need to measure not only CBF but also clinical performance. Despite these difficulties drugs affecting the cerebral circulation are worth intensive study, especially now, when reliable non-invasive methods of mesuring CBF are available and positron emission tomography enables us to study also cerebral metabolism in vivo.