A clinical trial of citicholine in patients with vertigo from central vestibular deficit

A clinical trial was carried out on 40 patients with central vestibular structure deficit, in order to verify the effects on CDP-Choline 1000 mg IM/day for 20 days. Such patients suffered from vertigo or balance alterations, either recurrent or chronic. Control visits were carried out on month after the beginning of therapy, that is 10 days after the last administration. The results showed that CDP-choline had a positive effect in 25/36 patients (about 70%) with a remission of vertigo in 7 cases (19,4%) and a subjective improvement in 18. From the ENG recordings it was seen that spontaneous nystagmus was absent from the beginning in 76% of patients with positive results. The most important variations were seen in roto-acceleratory tests, in which 17 patients showed a reduction in nystagmus amplitude after therapy. After therapy with CDP-choline it was also noticed a reduction in the "angular velocity of the slow phase". The compound apparently had non effect on either the segmentary tonic deviations or the oculomotor systems; segmentary tonic deviations and pursuit, in fact, showed no modifications after treatment. CDP-choline, therefore, proved to be a useful drug in the treatment of central vertigo syndromes and of recurrent o chronic balance disorders.