SSRIs effective for Improving Post-stroke Recovery, finds meta-analysis

Jordan: A meta-analysis study reported that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are safe and effective in post-stroke recovery. The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Globally, Stroke is the second leading cause of mortality affecting 13.7 million people each year. Despite the availability of safe and effective reperfusion therapies, stroke causes long-term functional disability in up to 75% of survivors. These data suggest an urgent need for novel treatment strategies to improve post-stroke recovery, particularly in view of the ongoing demographic change toward population ageing, in developed and developing countries around the globe. In recent years, great progress has been made in the treatment of acute stroke but post-stroke disability is still an unsolved problem. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of drugs that are typically used as antidepressants in the treatment of the major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and other psychological conditions.

Several clinical studies have shown SSRIs might improve clinical recovery from the stroke but they were limited by small sample sizes and heterogeneous designs. Heba M, University of Jordan, Jordan and colleagues decided to conduct a systematic review and meta‐analysis to investigate the efficacy and safety of SSRIs in post-stroke recovery.

Investigators searched PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases for the studies that were placebo‐controlled trials in design and reported SSRIs' effects on post-stroke depression, anxiety, disability, dependence, motor abilities, and cognitive functions. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the revised Cochrane risk‐of‐bias tool for randomized trials. The search yielded 44 articles consisting of 16 164 patients and about half of them were treated with SSRIs.