Effects of minaprine on sleep, anxiety and cognitive functions. A long-term sleep laboratory study

Minaprine is a new psychotropic drug which was shown to be active in both animal models of depression and human affective disorders. The effects of minaprine on laboratory sleep, anxiety and some cognitive functions were investigated in healthy subjects with a 3-week treatment. Minaprine showed favourable effects on sleep induction and maintenance during the three weeks of treatment. The results of sleep study also indicated that minaprine had an early and mild suppressive activity on REM sleep but this activity decreased as the treatment continued. The effects of the drug on intellectual skills appeared after intermediate-term treatment and were still present after three weeks of administration. They consisted of enhancement of attention, learning and long-term memory after consolidation of memory traces by means of a standardized procedure. The hypothesis is proposed that the effects of minaprine on sleep and intellectual skills are due to different interactions of the drug with brain neurotransmitter systems during sleep and wakefulness.