[The EEG of patients with acute manic psychoses before, during and after treatment with high doses of d-propranolol and dl-propranolol (author's transl)].

Abstract

Six manic patients, drug-free for at least 10 days, were treated with high doses (up to 3,000 mg/day, corresponding serum levels up to 1,600 ng/ml) of d-propranolol or dl-propranolol in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The EEG's of these patients were studied over a maximum period of 21 days. All 82 EEG's were normal, they showed neither epileptic patterns nor any other signs for hypersynchronisation, as a possible side-effect of propranolol, nor other abnormalities, due to the manic condition. Analysis by fast-fourier-transformation produced no difference between the effect of d-propranolol or dl-propranolol on EEG compared intra- and inter-hemispherically by power-spectra, cross-spectra, phase-differences and coherences. At high serum levels (more than 1,000 ng/ml) there was a corresponding increase of power and a drop in frequency of the alpha-activity, maximally--1.1 c/s, which probably depended on the serum level. This result is in agreement with the hypothesis of a direct antimanic effect of the drug and comparable to the clinical effect of lithium, which produces similar changes in EEG. A comparison of the propranolol-induced EEG changes with EEG changes usually induced by sedative drugs, contradicts the hypothesis that the antimatic properties of propranolol are caused by unspecific sedation.