Enhancing effect of HT008-1 on cognitive function and quality of life in cognitively declined healthy adults: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, trial

HT008-1 is one of the most effective multiherb mixtures that have neuroprotective effects in traditional Korean medicine. The purpose of this study was to conduct a clinical trial of the efficacy of HT008-1 on the neuropsychological functioning and quality of life (QoL) in cognitively intact adults. One hundred and eighteen male (n = 42) and female (n = 76) volunteers who reported no history of dementia or significant neurocognitive impairments and obtained Korean Version of Mini Mental State Examination total scores of at least 24 were examined via an 8-week, randomized, double-blind, fixed-dose, placebo-controlled, parallel group, clinical trial. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either HT008-1 (n = 59) or placebo (n = 59) for 8 weeks. Efficacy measures consisted of participants' performance scores from pretreatment baseline to those obtained just before termination of treatment on standardized neuropsychological measures from the subsets of Wechsler Memory Scale—III (WMS-III). QoL was assessed by subjective questionnaires WHOQoL-Bref about five categories. Participants who scored in the lower third of the Auditory recognition delayed at baseline and received HT008-1 exhibited improvement on the WMS-III Auditory recognition delayed subtest compared with placebo controls. The HT008-1 group also improved on general health scores in the QoL test.