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
Details
Lead Sponsor:
Chih-Wei Tang
Collaborators:
Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan University of Oxford