Effect of Caffeine on Evoked Potentials

Back ground: Caffeine a white crystalline xanthine alkaloid is the most widely used psychoactive stimulant in the world. Inspite of being used as a substance of abuse, it is widely used as a CNS and metabolic stimulant for its short term and long term pharmacological action. A number of studies with dramatic results have proved that caffeine is a stimulant. Review of literature: Effects of caffeine have been studied on brain function and behavior using number of tests, but, however, studies on acute effects of caffeine on both visual and auditory evoked potentials are few. Aim of the study: To record the effect of caffeine in relation with the auditory and visual evoked potentials, as well as to highlight the individual differences in its effects in variation with age, sex and substance abuse. Materials and Method : 6 healthy volunteers were recruited for the study after a questionnaire analysis followed by routine ophthalmologic and auditory examinations. They were administered 2mg/kg body weight of caffeine (PO) after 12hr abstinence from caffeine in any form. Auditory and visual evoked potentials were recorded before and after 30 minutes of ingestion of caffeine by using RMS Polyrite. Latency and amplitude of P100 in VEP and absolute latency and amplitude, inter-peak latencies in BAEP were evaluated. Results and conclusion: The data obtained revealed the decrease in the latencies of P100 waveform in VEP and I-V inter-peak latency in BAEP as well, indicating that caffeine improves transmission in the peripheral and central brain auditory pathways.