Serotonin Levels and Cognitive Recovery in Patients with Subacute Stroke after Rehabilitation Treatment

A while ago SSRIs were considered helpful in recovery.

Common antidepressant can help stroke patients improve movement and coordination Sept. 2015 

 

Antidepressants may help people recover from stroke even if they are not depressed Jan. 2013

  

 Have your doctor explain why  this discrepancy occurred between the upper two and this lower one.

 Then further research disproved that. 

 

Is there a suitable drug for stroke recovery?

The latest here with a lot of big words:

Serotonin Levels and Cognitive Recovery in Patients with Subacute Stroke after Rehabilitation Treatment

t
Mariacristina Siotto 1
, Marco Germanotta 1,* , Massimo Santoro 2
, Valeria Cipollini 1
, Giulia Guardati 1
,
Dionysia Papadopoulou 1
, Elisa Bray 1
, Alessia Mastrorosa 1 and Irene Aprile 1





Citation: Siotto, M.; Germanotta, M.;
Santoro, M.; Cipollini, V.;
Guardati, G.; Papadopoulou, D.;
Bray, E.; Mastrorosa, A.; Aprile, I.
Serotonin Levels and Cognitive
Recovery in Patients with Subacute
Stroke after Rehabilitation Treatment.
Brain Sci. 2021, 11, 642. https://
doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11050642
Academic Editors: Stefano Paolucci,
Giovanni Morone and Marco Iosa
Received: 22 March 2021
Accepted: 11 May 2021
Published: 15 May 2021
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4.0/).
1
IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS, 50143 Florence, Italy; msiotto@dongnocchi.it (M.S.);
vcipollini@dongnocchi.it (V.C.); gguardati@dongnocchi.it (G.G.); dpapadopoulou@dongnocchi.it (D.P.);
ebray@dongnocchi.it (E.B.); amastrorosa@dongnocchi.it (A.M.); iaprile@dongnocchi.it (I.A.)
2 Division of Health Protection Technologies ENEA-Italian National Agency for New Technologies,
Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 00123 Rome, Italy; massimo.santoro@enea.it
* Correspondence: mgermanotta@dongnocchi.it; Tel.: +39-0633086550

Abstract: 

Post-stroke depression and cognitive impairment are common conditions affecting patients after stroke. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter involved in modulating, among others, mood, cognition, learning, and memory. Sub-optimal serotonin activity may be in part responsible for cognitive deficits seen in depression. In this pilot study serotonin levels were evaluated in 29 patients withsub-acute stroke before and after a rehabilitation treatment (consisting of a program of upper limb robotic rehabilitation in addition to conventional physical therapy treatment). We employed the Back Depression Inventory scale to evaluate symptoms of depression, and specific tools to evaluate cognitive functions. We found a significant reduction of the serotonin levels after rehabilitation in the whole group (T0: 85.9 ± 92.4 ng/mL; T1: 61.9 ± 58.4 ng/mL; p = 0.0018), as well as in the subgroup of patients untreated with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SRRI), (mean serotonin at T0: 154.0 ± 102.3 ng/mL; mean serotonin at T1: 92.9. ± 68.7 ng/mL at T1; p = 0.005). We also found a correlation with cognitive assessment: in particular, the change from baseline of the serotonin(∆Serotonin) was correlated with the changes from baseline of the Rey’s Figure (∆ROCF) (r = 0.535; p < 0.05), the Tower of London (∆ToL) (subscore point: r = 0.621; p < 0.005; subscore time: r = −0.619; p < 0.005) meaning that a serotonin levels decrease is associated with a worsening of cognitive functions. Considering patients treated and untreated with SSRIs separately, in patients treated with SSRIs (n = 16) we found only a positive correlation between ∆Serotonin and ∆ToL (subscore point: r= 0.587; p = 0.045), whereas in patients untreated with SSRIs (n = 13) we found a positive correlations between ∆Serotonin and ∆ROCF (r = 0.700; p = 0.036), ∆Stroop (subscore time: r = 0.750; p = 0.020) and ∆Tol (subscore point: r = 0.740; p = 0.023) and a negative correlation between ∆Serotonin and ∆Tol (subscore time: r= −0.833; p = 0.005). These results suggest that variation of serotonin levels should be monitored in patients during a rehabilitation program, not only for their relationship with depression symptoms, but also for the correlation with cognitive performance.
Keywords: post-stroke depression; post-stroke cognitive impairment; serotonin; 5-HT; stroke; rehabilitation; cognitive functions; SSRIs.