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Prozac May Speed Material Rehabilitation After Stroke

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SUNDAY, Jan. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Stroke patients given the antidepressant fluoxetine (best known by the brand name of Prozac) appear to regain more muscle function than other recovering stroke sufferers, French researchers possess found.

Not surprisingly, patients on the generic Prozac were as well as less susceptible to depression after their stroke, the study found.

Paralysis and/or weakness on one side of the body are the most ordinary disabilities after stroke. Earlier trials possess suggested that antidepressants may help improve motor recovery after stroke, probably by increasing the level of serotonin in the central nervous system, the researchers explained.

Lead researcher Dr. Francois Chollet said the study "opens a recent pathway" in the treatment of the leading form of stroke, in which a blockage in a blood vessel is the cause of the attack. Chollet, from the University Hospital of Toulouse as well as INSERM, noted that Prozac as well as appears to target neurons themselves rather than trying to re-open arteries, as many other stroke medications do.

The report is published in the Jan. 9 online edition of The Lancet Neurology.

Stroke is a major cause of death as well as long-term disability for Americans, so any agent that helps boost functionality is of large benefit. In the recent study, Chollet's team randomly assigned 118 ischemic (blockage) stroke patients west with paralysis or weakness on one side of the body to either 20 milligrams of generic Prozac or placebo per day starting 5 to 10 days after their stroke.

After three months of follow-up, patients using generic Prozac had improved their score on a measure of motor function by 34 points over their initial test, compared with a 24.3-point improvement among those receiving placebo, the researchers found.

Moreover, this statistically significant improvement was seen in both arm as well as leg function, Chollet's group said.

The improvement meant that more patients in the generic Prozac group were capable to live independently than patients in the placebo group, the researchers noted.

The drug -- from the alike class of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that includes Celexa, Paxil as well as Zoloft -- was well-tolerated as well as side effects were mild. But, nausea, diarrhea, as well as abdominal pain were more ordinary among patients using the antidepressant, as well as two of those patients suffered humorless adverse events.

The generic form of Prozac is as well as relatively inexpensive now, at about 30 cents per pill.

As well as there was an added bonus: patients using generic Prozac were less likely to be depressed, which suggests that giving the antidepressant after a stroke could halt depression, the researchers say.

But Chollet noted that remaining questions persist. "How extended should be the treatment period? What is the long-term effect? Can other neurological functions, such as language as well as vision, be improved in a similar way? Can we observe a similar action in [the rarer form of] hemorrhagic strokes? These question will possess to be addressed in a abridged while," he said.

He as well as the other researchers reported no conflicts of interest.

Dr. Robert G. Robinson, professor as well as head of the department of psychiatry at the University of Iowa as well as coauthor of an accompanying journal editorial, said that "the implications of the study are very positive."

Robinson noted that a study that he participated in found similar results. He believes that antidepressants may aid in producing recent nerve cells in the brain as well as as well as help in creating recent connections between these cells. In addition, antidepressants may as well as help in preventing the inflammation seen in stroke, he said.

"This study raises the question, should all patients who possess a stroke be given antidepressant medication?" Robinson said. "Given the large number of people who possess stroke each year, you are talking about a huge paradigm shift in the care of stroke patients. But this finding clearly raises that question."

To find the answer, "a large definitive trial" needs to be done that compares the take of antidepressants as well as placebo in many patients, Robinson said. He as well as his co-author as well as noted that the trial should investigate whether the effects of the treatment persist over time.

But another expert suggested that generic Prozac's role in lowering post-stroke depression may account for the improvement in material function simply by promoting more effective participation in material therapy.

Dr. Larry B. Goldstein, director of the Duke University Stroke Center, noted that the study failed to control for the intensity or class of material therapy that patients received after the stroke.

"Those who received the antidepressant tended to be less depressed than those who weren't depressed as well as thus may possess more effectively participated in material therapy," he reasoned.

"Because other studies show that more intensive material therapy is associated with best recovery, it is likely that the antidepressant effect, rather than an effect on the recovery process itself, may explain the difference," Goldstein said.

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