New research suggests an existing drug, riluzole, may prevent foggy 'old age' brain

In rats for now, but if I had a foggy brain post-stroke I would see about getting this. You will have to hope your doctor is more concerned about helping you recover than following their non-existent stroke protocols and never doing anything outside the 'book'. If this prevents glutamate spillover maybe it should be used the first week to address one of the causes of the neuronal cascade of death.

Rodent research was done in 1997.

Differential Inhibition by Riluzole, Lamotrigine, and Phenytoin of Sodium and Calcium Currents in Cortical Neurons: Implications for Neuroprotective Strategies

Which once again shows the fucking incompetency of our stroke medical world. No strategy and no one even seeming to understand we need a strategy and plan to solve all the fucking problems in stroke

The latest here:

New research suggests an existing drug, riluzole, may prevent foggy 'old age' brain

Forgetfulness, it turns out, is all in the head. Scientists have shown that fading memory and clouding judgment, the type that comes with advancing age, show up as lost and altered connections between neurons in the brain. But new experiments suggest an existing drug, known as riluzole and already on the market as a treatment for ALS, may help prevent these changes.

Researchers at The Rockefeller University and The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found they could stop normal, age-related memory loss in rats by treating them with riluzole. This treatment, they found, prompted changes known to improve connections, and as a result, communication, between certain neurons within the brain's hippocampus.

"By examining the neurological changes that occurred after riluzole treatment, we discovered one way in which the brain's ability to reorganize itself — its neuroplasticity — can be marshaled to protect it against some of the deterioration that can accompany old age, at least in rodents," says co-senior study author Alfred E. Mirsky Professor Bruce McEwen, head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology. The research is published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Neurons connect to one another to form circuits connecting certain parts of the brain, and they communicate using a chemical signal known as glutamate. But too much glutamate can cause damage; excess can spill out and excite connecting neurons in the wrong spot. In the case of age-related cognitive decline, this process damages neurons at the points where they connect—their synapses. In neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, this contributes to the death of neurons.
Used to slow the progress of another neurodegenerative condition, ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), riluzole was an obvious choice as a potential treatment, because it works by helping to control glutamate release and uptake, preventing harmful spillover. The researchers began giving riluzole to rats once they reached 10 months old, the rat equivalent of middle age, when their cognitive decline typically begins.
After 17 weeks of treatment, the researchers tested the rats' spatial memory — the type of memory most readily studied in animals — and found they performed better than their untreated peers, and almost as well as young rats. For instance, when placed in a maze they had already explored, the treated rats recognized an unfamiliar arm as such and spent more time investigating it.