No evidence exists at present to support the use of amphetamine after stroke .
INTRODUCTION The use of drugs to enhance recovery ( " rehabilitation pharmacology " ) has been assessed .
Amphetamine can improve outcome in experimental models of stroke , and several small clinical trials have assessed its use in stroke .
An fMRI Study of the Effect of Amphetamine on Brain Activity
Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to evaluate the effects of oral d-amphetamine on brain activation elicited by auditory and simple motor tasks in ten normal right-h and ed subjects . We measured the percent signal change and number of voxels activated by a tone discrimination task and a right h and finger-tapping task after 20 mg of d-amphetamine and after placebo . Compared to placebo , amphetamine significantly increased the number of activated voxels in the left and right primary auditory cortices during the tone discrimination task and increased the number of activated voxels in the ipsilateral primary sensorimotor cortex and right middle frontal area during the motor task . Although highly specific vascular effects of drug can not be ruled out as an explanation , these results could also mean that amphetamine increases the neuronal activity associated with each of these two tasks
No evidence exists at present to support the use of amphetamine after stroke .
INTRODUCTION The use of drugs to enhance recovery ( " rehabilitation pharmacology " ) has been assessed .
Amphetamine can improve outcome in experimental models of stroke , and several small clinical trials have assessed its use in stroke .