Affiliations: Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and Landon Center on Aging, Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA | [x] Danish National Research Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark | [y] Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Randolph Nudo, Kansas University Medical Center, Landon Center on Aging, MS1005, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA. Tel.: +1 913 588 1247; Fax: +1 913 588 1201; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Therapeutic strategies to promote recovery from stroke are now beginning to utilize current knowledge of neural plasticity and the neuromodulatory role of physical rehabilitation. Current interests are also focused on adjuvant therapies that may enhance plasticity associated with recovery and rehabilitation. Amphetamine was one of the earliest pharmacological interventions and continues to show promising results as an adjuvant treatment for recovery of function in pre-clinical animal studies. This drug is a potent modulator of neurological function and cortical excitation, acting primarily through norepinephrine and dopamine mechanisms to enhance arousal and attention, and thus, to facilitate learning of motor skills. Although the results from the pre-clinical studies have been primarily positive, they have not translated well to clinical trials, which have yielded mixed results. This review addresses some of the conflicting evidence from pre-clinical studies conducted between 1982 and 2008 in order to better understand how to optimize the clinical application of amphetamine as an adjuvant therapy for stroke recovery. Among many of the factors that relate to differences in outcome, it is likely that both amphetamine dose and the timing of the intervention with respect to the time of injury affected the outcome.
