Anyone used sulbutiamine? its a form of vit b1 indicated for asthenia/chronic fatigue.
Sulbutiamine (brand name:
Arcalion) is a synthetic derivative of
thiamine (vitamin B
1). As a
dimer of two modified thiamine molecules, it is a lipophilic compound that crosses the
blood-brain barrier more readily than thiamine and increases the levels of thiamine and thiamine phosphate esters in the brain.
[1] Sulbutiamine was discovered in Japan in an effort to develop more useful thiamine derivatives since it was hoped that increasing the
lipophilicity of thiamine would result in better
pharmacokinetic properties.
[2]
Asthenia
Sulbutiamine is indicated for the treatment of
asthenia. Asthenia is a condition of chronic fatigue that is cerebral rather than neuromuscular in origin.
[11] Several studies have shown that sulbutiamine is effective at relieving the symptoms of asthenia. In a study of 1772 patients with an infectious disease and asthenic symptoms, sulbutiamine was administered in addition to specific anti-infective treatment for 15 days.
[12] The number of patients with complete resolution of all asthenic symptoms was 916. Another study showed that sulbutiamine is effective at relieving asthenia in patients after mild craniocerebral trauma.
[13] Nevertheless, the clinical efficacy of sulbutiamine is uncertain. In a study of postinfectious chronic fatigue patients, sulbutiamine did not demonstrate sustained benefits over the placebo, which raises doubts about its clinical efficacy.
[3] However, the authors of that study suggest that additional research is needed to evalulate the potential usefulness of sulbutiamine in the treatment of chronic fatigue.
[edit] Memory
Several studies have shown that sulbutiamine improves memory through the potentiation of cholinergic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic transmission. When sulbutiamine is administered to mice, they perform better on operant conditioning tests
[14] and object recognition tests.
[15] Sulbutiamine also reduces the amnesiac effects of
dizocilpine and improves memory in schizophrenics.
[15] More recently, sulbutiamine has been shown to improve everyday activities in patients suffering from early-stage and moderate
Alzheimer's disease when used in conjunction with an
acetylcholinesterase inhibitor.
[16] In a randomized double-blind study of Alzheimer's disease patients, the combination of sulbutiamine and
donepezil improved episodic memory and daylife activities better than the combination of donepezil and a placebo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulbutiamine