Rehabilitative Success After Brain Trauma by Augmenting a Subtherapeutic Dose of Environmental Enrichment With Galantamine

Sounds like this might be useful for stroke also so followup with human testing is needed.  Of course you will have to ask your doctor what the environment enrichment protocol is for your rehab.

Rehabilitative Success After Brain Trauma by Augmenting a Subtherapeutic Dose of Environmental Enrichment With Galantamine

Show all authors

Patricia B. de la Tremblaye, PhD, Jody L. Wellcome, Benjamin Wells de Witt, MD, ...

First Published November 12, 2017 Research Article

Download PDF	Article information

Abstract

Background. Environmental enrichment (EE) confers benefits after traumatic brain injury (TBI) when provided daily for > 6 hours, but not 2 or 4 hours, which more accurately reflects the daily amount of clinical rehabilitation. The lack of benefit with sub-therapeutic EE suggests that augmentation with galantamine (GAL), which enhances cognition after TBI, may be indicated to confer benefits.  
Objective. To test the hypothesis that 2 and 4 hours of EE paired with GAL will provide benefits comparable to 24 hours of EE alone. Moreover, all EE groups will perform better than the standard (STD)-housed GAL group.  
Methods. Anesthetized rats received a TBI or sham injury and then were randomized to receive intraperitoneal injections of GAL (2 mg/kg) or saline vehicle (VEH; 1 mL/kg) beginning 24 hours after surgery and once daily while receiving EE for 2, 4, or 24 hours. Motor and cognitive assessments were conducted on postoperative days 1-5 and 14-19, respectively.  
Results. Motor function was significantly improved in the TBI + 24-hour EE group versus the TBI + STD + VEH and TBI + STD + GAL groups (P < .05). Cognitive performance was enhanced in all EE groups as well as in the TBI + STD + GAL versus TBI + STD + VEH (P < .05). Moreover, the 2- and 4-hour EE groups receiving GAL did not differ from the 24-hour EE group (P > .05) and performed better than GAL alone (P < .05).  
Conclusions. The findings support the hypothesis and have clinical relevance because, often, only brief rehabilitation may be available in the clinic and, thus, augmenting with a pharmacotherapy such as GAL may lead to outcomes that are significantly better than either therapy alone.