X-Message-Number: 14423 From: Eugene Leitl <> Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 01:05:59 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [smartdrugs] piracetam news (fwd) From: Sender: To: Subject: [smartdrugs] piracetam news (fwd) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 03:10:03 -0400 (EDT) Wednesday, September 06, 2000 Old Drug Helps Speech Skills An old medication has stroke survivors talking -- literally, that is. A new study published in the September issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association finds the drug piracetam, which has been around for three decades, helps stroke victims regain speech and language skills. Researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Neurological Research in Cologne, Germany randomly assigned 24 stroke patients to one hour of speech therapy a day, or speech therapy plus 4,800 milligrams of piracetam daily. All of the patients had mild to moderate aphasia, a language-processing disorder that occurs when a certain area in the brain that governs language skills is cut off from oxygen due to a stroke. After eight weeks of treatment, both groups showed improvement. But the group taking piracetam showed greater improvements in spontaneous speech, conversation, understanding the proper ordering of words in a sentence, written language and comprehension. Researchers used brain scans to find that those taking piracetam showed more activity in the areas of the brain that govern language skills. "There has been controversy about whether medications can improve the effectiveness of speech therapy in helping stroke survivors regain functions lost due to brain damage," says lead researcher Josef Kessler. The findings, he adds, "link functional improvements on language tests with physical changes in brain regions that govern language." {Not sure the source of this article.....} - ERIC SMILE SPACE MIGRATION INTELLIGENCE INCREASE LIFE EXTENSION Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14423