Investigating the Effect of Citalopram and Fluoxetine on Motor Function after Stroke in Patients with Acute Cerebral Stroke

Abstract

Introduction: Stroke is a rapidly progressive neurological disorder of cerebrovascular origin, after which most patients suffer from motor impairment. Yet, clinical studies have not fully confirmed or rejected the use or non-use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs. The aim was to investigate the effect of citalopram and fluoxetine on motor function after stroke in acute cerebral stroke patients.Methods: This is a double-blind clinical trial study on 90 patients in 3 groups including fluoxetine 20, citalopram 20 and placebo daily for 90 days along with physiotherapy. Fogel-Meier score was assigned to all patients included in the study. The grading of the test is based on the direct observation of the performance, where each item is scored from 0-2. A 21-item questionnaire was also used to determine the severity of depression. Repeated measure Anova was used for data analysis.Results: The average age of the studied subjects was 61.9±8.02 years. 64.4% were male. There was no statistically significant difference in the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients in three groups in baseline. The average motor function score one, two and three months after the intervention was the highest in the fluoxetine group and the lowest in the placebo group, and this difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Also, the effect of time on changes in motor function score was significant (P<0.05).Conclusion: Therefore, fluoxetine and citalopram treatment restores motor function and may provide sustained recovery after stroke.

Keywords

• stroke
• fluoxetine
• citalopram
• motor performance