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 .
Modulation of use-dependent plasticity by d-amphetamine.
Use-dependent plasticity , thought to contribute to functional recovery after brain injury , is elicited by motor training . The purpose of this study was to determine if administration of d-amphetamine facilitates the effects of motor training on use-dependent plasticity . Healthy human volunteers underwent a training period of voluntary thumb movements under the effects of placebo or d-amphetamine in different sessions in a r and omized double-blind , counterbalanced design . Previous work in a drug-naive condition showed that such training causes changes in the direction of thumb movements evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation and in transcranial magnetic stimulation-evoked electromyographic responses . The endpoint measure of the study was the magnitude of training-induced changes in transcranial magnetic stimulation-evoked kinematic and electromyographic responses in the d-amphetamine and in the placebo conditions . Motor training result ed in increased magnitude , faster development and longer lasting duration of use-dependent plasticity under d-amphetamine compared to the placebo session . These results document a facilitatory effect of d-amphetamine on use-dependent plasticity , a possible mechanism mediating the beneficial effect of this drug on functional recovery after cortical lesions
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 .