SSRIs and TDCS Enhance Post-stroke Motor Recovery

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Trial end date: 2025-08-31
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

Post-stroke motor recovery is compelling but limited. Current rehabilitation has less impacts on the plateau that spontaneous biological recovery could be expected. The advances in non-invasive neuromodulation and neurophysiological characterization of critical motor recovery period enable breaking the proportional recovery limitation. Our pilot studies demonstrated the safety and responsiveness of combing dual transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and motor training in subacute stroke patients. There is also strong evidence that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can substantially increase the effects of tDCS and improve motor function after stroke, even in the absence of depression. This proposal aims to prove the potential of combining of tDCS and the commonly used SSRI citalopram to improve response to a daily motor training intervention in acute stroke patients (Co-STARS trial).

• Phase: Phase 3
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Chih-Wei Tang
• Collaborators: Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan; University of Oxford
• Treatments: Citalopram

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• aged 20-80;

• first-onset stroke

• brain image confirmed unilateral subcortical infarction

• moderate to severe upper-limb impairment (SAFE score <8).

• 3 days to 4 weeks after stroke onset

• stable medical condition

Exclusion Criteria:

• metal implants, such as electrodes or pacemaker

• epilepsy history or active spikes from EEG recording

• major depression or taking psychoactive drugs

• alcoholism or drug abuse history

• combined with other severe neurological or psychiatric diagnoses

• pregnancy or breastfeeding;

• other contraindications to brain MRI, such as severe claustrophobia

• intolerance to electrical stimulation