Antidepressants act on the brain and a new study suggests they help not just with depression, but also after a stroke. While clot-busting drugs can help people survive a stroke, the problem is how to help them regain their cognitive and physical function after the damage that the stroke has done to the brain. Researchers from the University of Iowa now report on a promising new study, involving the antidepressant drug escitalopram. This is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) a widely used class of antidepressants which increases levels of serotonin in the brain. The study involved 129 stroke survivors. Within three months of the stroke, patients received either 5 to 10 mg of escitalopram or placebo a day, or they took part in a problem-solving therapy which had been developed for patients with depression.

After 12 weeks of treatment, those on escitalopram had higher scores on tests of thinking, learning and memory, and on tests of visual and verbal memory. The researchers note that these improved scores translated to improvements in activities of daily living. The benefits of escitalopram were not influenced by the type of stroke and were independent of any effect upon depressive symptoms. The benefits may come from changes in brain structure that can come from antidepressant treatment, which involve the visual cortex, hippocampus and cerebral cortex. The use of antidepressants in treating stroke survivors is clearly deserving of further research.

Source:

Jorge R et al Escitalopram and enhancement of cognitive recovery following stroke Archives of General Psychiatry February 2010;67:187-196