Cerebral activating drugs

The term ‘cerebral activating drugs’ is used for the title of this chapter as a convenient way to embrace a wide variety of drugs which have been used in attempts to improve cerebral function in old age. Such drugs include vasodilators, drugs influencing cerebral metabolism, stimulants and drugs which are claimed to improve the flow of blood in the cerebral microcirculation by virtue of actions on blood viscosity, red cell deformability, or one or more biochemical effects at the cellular level.