Effects of DDAVP on gender-specific verbal and visuospatial tasks in healthy young adults

Although several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of the vasopressin analog DDAVP in enhancing human cognition, few previous studies have explored possible interactions of treatment with DDAVP and gender in healthy young adults. The present study was undertaken to explore the effects of treatment with DDAVP on gender-specific tasks. Male and female volunteers were treated with either DDAVP or saline and asked to recall lists of words and to perform the Paper Folding and Stroop Color Word Tests. Although treatment with DDAVP produced few effects in these tasks, the effects that were noted involved impairment of performance.