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(Stroke. 2003;34:2766.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.

Cochrane Corner

Amphetamines for Improving Stroke Recovery

A Systematic Cochrane Review

From the Institution of Clinical Neurosciences (L.D.M., N.G.W.) and Department of Neurology, Karolinska Hospital (H-G.H., N.G.W.), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

Correspondence and reprint requests to Louise Martinsson, Stroke Research Unit, R2:03, Dept of Neurology, Karolinska Hospital, SE - 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail louise.martinsson@ks.se

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

The search for pharmacological therapies, which may facilitate the recovery process after a permanent brain injury, has been intensified during the past decade. One of the most extensively studied pharmacological approaches to stimulate recovery after experimental stroke is treatment with amphetamines. Experimental animal studies suggest that treatment with amphetamines improve recovery after focal cerebral ischemia. If the effect were similar in humans, amphetamine treatment could have a major impact on recovery from stroke. This systematic review aims to assess the effects of amphetamine treatment, as compared with placebo, in patients with stroke.

Methods

We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials Register (last searched November 2002). In addition, we searched the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (Cochrane Library, Issue 4 2002), MEDLINE (1966–September 2002), EMBASE (1980–November 2002), and Science Citation Index (1992–December 2002). The reference lists of all relevant articles and reviews were checked, and we contacted researchers in the field to identify further published and unpublished studies.

We considered randomized unconfounded trials comparing amphetamine with placebo.

Two reviewers independently selected trials for inclusion, assessed trial quality, and extracted the data.

Results

Seven studies involving 172 patients were included. Based on 2 trials (85 patients), there was no evidence that amphetamine treatment reduced death or dependence (Peto’s odds ratio [Peto OR] 1.54; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.64 to 3.73). In these 2 trials, there were imbalances at baseline, with more severe strokes allocated to amphetamine. This imbalance may account for the trend for more deaths at the end of follow-up among amphetamine-allocated patients (Peto . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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