A double-blind study was carried out on 56 geronto-psychiatric in-patients who suffered from cerebral metabolic and nutritional disturbances to prove the effectiveness of 10-methoxy-1,6-dimethyl-ergoline-8 beta-methanol-(5-bromonicotinate (nicergoline, Sermion). After a washout-phase of eight days the patients in the verum group received 3 x 1 dragée at 10 mg for a period of 12 weeks. For methodical reasons only patients with slight transit syndromes and, of these, only the first four weeks of examination were included in the present analysis. Thus 8 verum and 9 placebo patients remain whose findings during the trial are recorded in three procedures of capacity and two procedures of self-assessment (syndrome short test, repeating figures and letters, reading letters; scale for general somatic discomfort, scale for vegetative functional disturbances). In the measuring procedures there is a tendency towards improvement under the treatment with nicergline compared with placebo during the first three weeks. But the present results are not sufficient to come to a clear decision on the effectiveness of nicergoline in patients with cerebrovascular insufficiency.