Effects of Mel B arsobal and alpha-difluoromethylornithine on the awakening electroencephalogram of humans with gambiense trypanosomiasis disease: preliminary report.

Five males and three females, at the encephalic stage of sleeping sickness, were submitted to trypanocide therapies. Three of the patients were treated with the Mel B Arsobal drug, the five others with difluoromethylornithine, using different protocols. Awakening electroencephalographic data were obtained prior to treatment and, at regular intervals, during and after treatment. Prior to treatment the awakening tracings showed important abnormalities (slow delta waves were superimposed on theta background rhythms). During treatment (except in one patient treated with Arsobal) recordings returned gradually to fast rhythms and several days after therapy, tracings returned to the normal awakening patterns. The use of the awakening electroencephalogram as a tool to test effects of curative drugs in the sleeping sickness syndrome is discussed.