(Ind. J. Paed. (1993): (60), 3, 423)

Evaluation of BR-16A (Mentat) in Cognitive and Behavioural Dysfunction of Mentally Retarded Children - A Placebo-Controlled Study Usha P. Dave, Vijaysingh Chauvan and Jyoti Dalvi, Centre of Research in Mental Retardation (CREMERE), V.D. Indian Society for Mentally Retarded, Bombay, India.

ABSTRACT It is important to control abnormal behaviour, hyperactivity and improve cognition in mentally retarded children (MRC), which would help in their education, training and subsequent rehabilitation. Recently it has become known that amongst other side-effects, protracted use of anticonvulsant medication induces cognitive and behavioural dysfunction, which is a major problem in mentally retarded epileptics. In a placebo-controlled study, we confirmed the efficacy of a herbal preparation, BR-16A (Mentat) in controlling such behavioural and cognitive deficits in 40 mentally retarded children. The efficacy of this remedy was further evaluated in 19 MRCs with epilepsy. Twelve patients had generalised seizure, 4 with partial and 3 with mixed seizure pattern. In spite of the usual antiepileptic treatment, the frequency of seizures ranged from 1 to 7 attacks in periods from 1 week to 1 year. With the active drug Mentat, it was possible to note a reduction in seizure frequency. Patients with higher frequency responded better. There was no further increase in the dosage of antiepileptic drugs. There was significant control of other abnormal behaviour as shown by reduction in rating score on the Children’s Behavioural Inventory test. Mentat was effective in controlling abnormal behaviour, especially hyperactivity and incongruous behaviour in mentally retarded children with and without epilepsy. Key words: BR-16A (Mentat), mental retardation, cognition, hyperkinetism. Mental retardation is a multidimensional condition and symptoms range from mild to severe. It may present as a specific disorder or may occur in combination with other disorders. More than 6.8 million persons suffer from mental retardation (IQ25% in 2 children. The effect was Without Epilepsy With Epilepsy more evident in severely retarded children. The degree of improvement was the same in epileptic children, i.e. more improvement was evident in severely retarded children although epileptic. z

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Table 2: Effect of Placebo and Mentat for 12 weeks in 20 children OWK 12 weeks Placebo 23.09 ± 3.29 23.81 ± 3.42 Mentat 27.90 ± 2.43 42.00* ± 2.89** * Compared to week 0 p