Prozac could help boost recovery from strokes, study claims

Giving the anti-depressant drug Prozac to stroke patients could significantly help improve movement and increase their independence, research suggests.

A new study - the largest of its kind carried out on the subject - found that the common and inexpensive treatment was a promising option for patients whose mobility is severely affected by a stroke.

Scottish campaigners said the findings were "very interesting" and called for further work to discover if Prozac could become an effective treatment for stroke sufferers.

The study, published in The Lancet Neurology, looked at patients who had suffered an ischaemic stroke - the type which occurs when a clot blocks an artery carrying blood to the brain.

Prozac - also known as fluoxetine - is a type of anti-depressant known as a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI), used by millions of people around the world.

Previous small trials have suggested that SSRIs might help improve the recovery of movement after stroke, probably by increasing the level of serotonin - a chemical linked with mood - in the central nervous system.

The trial was established by researchers in Toulouse, France, to investigate whether Prozac would enhance motor recovery - the ability to use and control muscles and movements - in a large group of stroke patients with moderate to severe movement problems.

Between March 2005 and June 2009, 118 patients from nine stroke units across France were randomly assigned to receive either Prozac or a placebo for three months, starting five to ten days after their stroke. All patients also received physiotherapy.

After carrying out tests, the researchers said that significantly greater improvements in motor function were recorded after three months in patients taking Prozac compared to those on the dummy treatment. Also, after three months the Prozac patients were significantly more independent compared with the other group.

The researchers said that Prozac was well tolerated and side-effects were infrequent and generally mild.

Depression was significantly less common in patients taking Prozac, suggesting that it could also prevent depression if given soon after a stroke.

The researchers concluded: "The positive effect of the drug on motor function of recovering patients suggests that the neuronal, non-vascular-targeted action of SSRIs provides a new pathway that should be explored further in the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke."Maddy Halliday, Scottish director of The Stroke Association, said: "We are continually searching for new treatments which can improve the outcomes for stroke survivors and the results of this research look promising.

"Anti-depressants, such as fluoxetine, can be used to treat stroke patients with depression which is a common side-effect of stroke, so it's very interesting to see that this already licensed drug could have a dual benefit."