Methamphetamine for Stroke Victims

Via NewScientist.com -

Methamphetamine may protect the brain after a stroke, according to new research in rats and gerbils.

The illicit street drug – also known as speed – helped reduce brain damage when used up to 16 hours after stroke, potentially widening the window of opportunity for drug intervention.

Researchers induced strokes in gerbils, causing them to become twice as active and agitated as normal gerbils. But when the animals were given a low dose of methamphetamine up to 16 hours after the event, the animals became calmer. Dissection later showed that the neurons of the gerbils given methamphetamine were as intact as in animals that had not suffered stroke.

“Methamphetamine is a drug that has been shown to exacerbate stroke damage when administered before a stroke, but we have seen roughly 80% to 90% protection of neurons when administered after a stroke,” says Dave Poulsen, who led the research at the University of Montana in the US.