The Psychomotor Effects Of Brahmi And Caffeine On Healthy Male Volunteers

Background: Brahmi enhances cognitive processes including comprehension, memory and recall. Caffeine is undoubtedly the most widely used psychoactive substance in the world. Aim: To compare the psychomotor performance of brahmi and caffeine. Setting: Postgraduate Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics of a Medical college Material and methods: 40 healthy male medical student volunteers were given Brahmi (250 mg) or Caffeine (100 mg) twice a day after meals for 16 weeks. Two types of psychomotor performance tests were conducted on the subjects at 0 (before the consumption of drug), 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks. Instrumental tests included a Simple Reaction Time Task (SRT), a Multiple Choice Reaction Time Task (MCRT), a Critical Flicker Fusion Threshold Task (CFFT) and a Tracking Performance Task (TPT) whereas, non - instrumental tests included a Digit cancellation task (DCI), a Memory test (MT) and a Mental arithmetic task (MAT). Results: Out of these subjects, two dropped out from the caffeine group due to unpleasant side effects at week 2. At 16 weeks, Brahmi caused significant decrease in the MCRT score than caffeine (P<0.05), while at 12 and 16 weeks, Brahmi significantly improved the CFFT score than caffeine (P<0.05). After 8 weeks onwards, Brahmi caused significant increase in the DCT score than caffeine (P<0.05). MT scores were significantly better in the caffiene group than in the Brahmi group at 12 weeks (P<0.001). Brahmi showed significant increase in the MAT score than caffeine in 8, 12 and 16 weeks (P<0.05). Conclusion: From the results of the present study, we conclude that Brahmi can prove to be a supplement of utmost utility to improve cognitive functions.