Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Jul 15.
Published in final edited form as: Exp Gerontol. 2018 Apr 25;108:166–173. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2018.04.013

Table 3.

Cognitive measures.

Study’s 1st author, year Creatine group patients (males/females) Placebo group patients (males/females) Type of treatment Cognitive measures Outcome
Watanabe et al., 2002 N = 12 (NR) N = 12 (NR) 8 g/d (in 4 doses) for 5 d Uchida-Kraepelin test (UKT) The regression coefficient of the creatine group significantly increased from 0.0115 to 0.0055 (p < 0.02, paired t-test), no significant changes in the placebo group (from 0.0078 to 0.0087, p > 0.5)
Rae et al., 2003 Crossover design Crossover design 5 g/d for six weeks Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPMs) Oral creatine significantly increased intelligence (as measured by RAPMs done under time pressure) compared with placebo (p < 0.0001; repeated-measures ANO VA). No significant effect of treatment order (p = 0.21), although there was a significant interaction with treatment order (p = 0.0004)
Wechsler Auditory backward digit span (BDS) task Oral creatine significantly affected performance on BDS (p < 0.0001), with no effect oi order (p = 0.40)
McMorris et al., 2007a N = 15 (8/7) N = 17 (8/9) 5 g creatine 4×/d for 7d Random number generation No difference between groups
Forward number recall Creatine group was improved compared to placebo (p < 0.01)
Backward number recall No difference between groups
Forward spatial recall Creatine group was improved compared to placebo (p < 0.05)
Backward spatial recall Creatine group was significantly improved compared to placebo (p < 0.01)
Long term memory test Creatine group was significantly improved compared to placebo (p < 0.01)
Rawson et al., 2008 N = 11 (6/5) N = 11 (7/4) 0.03 g/kg per day for 6 weeks Simple reaction time No difference between groups
Immediate code substitution No difference between groups
Delayed code substitution No difference between groups
Logical reasoning No difference between groups
Mathematical processing No difference between groups
Running memory No difference between groups
Memory recall No difference between groups
Ling et al., 2009 N = 17 (11/6) N = 17 (11/6) 5 g/d for 2 weeks Memory Scanning
Stimulus number in set-RT Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.01)
Stimulus number in set-NI Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.01)
Stimulus number not in set-RT Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.01)
Stimulus number not in set-NI Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.05)
Overall mean-RT Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.01)
Overall NI Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.01)
Number-Pair Matching
Overall RT Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.01)
Overall NI Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.01)
Sustained Attention
Number of correct responses No change for any group
RT correct responses Improvements for both groups (ps < 0.05)
Number of false positives No change for any group
Number of correct omissions Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.01)
Number of incorrect omissions No change for any group
Arrow Flankers
Overall number of false alarms Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.01)
Overall RT Improvement for both cr. group and placebo group (ps < 0.01 and < 0.05)
Overall NI Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.01)
IQ score Improvement only for cr. group (p < 0.01)
Benton and Donohoe, 2011 N = 61 (0/61) N = 60 (0/60) 5 g/d for 5 days Word list recall Improvement for vegeterians of cr.group compared to meat eaters of cr.group (p < 0.001). No changes for placebo group
RT No change for any group
Vigilance No change for any group
Word fluency No change for any group