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Cognitive effects of two nutraceuticals G inseng and B acopa benchmarked against modafinil: a review and comparison of effect sizes
Author(s) -
Neale Chris,
Camfield David,
Reay Jonathon,
Stough Con,
Scholey Andrew
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
british journal of clinical pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.216
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1365-2125
pISSN - 0306-5251
DOI - 10.1111/bcp.12002
Subject(s) - modafinil , neurocognitive , nutraceutical , cognition , placebo , recall , clinical trial , medicine , psychology , pharmacology , psychiatry , cognitive psychology , alternative medicine , pathology
Over recent years there has been increasing research into both pharmaceutical and nutraceutical cognition enhancers. Here we aimed to calculate the effect sizes of positive cognitive effect of the pharmaceutical modafinil in order to benchmark the effect of two widely used nutraceuticals G inseng and B acopa (which have consistent acute and chronic cognitive effects, respectively). A search strategy was implemented to capture clinical studies into the neurocognitive effects of modafinil, G inseng and B acopa. Studies undertaken on healthy human subjects using a double‐blind, placebo‐controlled design were included. For each study where appropriate data were included, effect sizes ( C ohen's d ) were calculated for measures showing significant positive and negative effects of treatment over placebo. The highest effect sizes for cognitive outcomes were 0.77 for modafinil (visuospatial memory accuracy), 0.86 for G inseng (simple reaction time) and 0.95 for B acopa (delayed word recall). These data confirm that neurocognitive enhancement from well characterized nutraceuticals can produce cognition enhancing effects of similar magnitude to those from pharmaceutical interventions. Future research should compare these effects directly in clinical trials.