Relative to Typical Antipsychotic Drugs, Aripiprazole Is a Safer Alternative for Alleviating Behavioral Disturbances After Experimental Brain Trauma.
Thomas I Phelps, Corina O Bondi, Vincent V Mattiola and 1 others
PMID 27225976WHAT IT FOUND
In rats with a moderate brain injury, aripiprazole was not worse than vehicle on motor and learning tests.
The lower dose improved water-maze learning, and both doses reduced lesion size and increased surviving CA3 neurons.
Key findings
01The lower dose of aripiprazole, 0.1 mg/kg, helped injured rats find the hidden water-maze platform faster than the vehicle group and the 1.0 mg/kg group.
02Both aripiprazole doses, 0.1 mg/kg and 1.0 mg/kg, reduced cortical lesion volume and increased surviving hippocampal CA3 neurons compared with vehicle.
03The 1.0 mg/kg dose improved beam-balance performance relative to vehicle, but neither aripiprazole dose changed beam-walk traversal time.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
This was done in rats, not people, so it does not show that aripiprazole is safe or helpful for a patient with traumatic brain injury. The study used a small number of animals: 40 rats were started and 38 were analysed after 2 were excluded because they could not find a visible platform. The paper reports many outcomes, and the supplied text does not identify one as the main endpoint. The higher dose did not differ from vehicle on several learning and memory measures, while the lower dose did, so the dose response was not simple. Some outcomes showed no benefit: beam-walk traversal did not differ among injured groups, and CA1 neuron survival did not differ among injured groups. The authors suggest mechanisms involving serotonin and dopamine, but the paper did not test those mechanisms.
Declared interests
No conflict-of-interest declaration is included in the supplied text. The article is marked as supported by NIH extramural research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that aripiprazole is safe or effective for people with traumatic brain injury. The work was done in rats, and it did not test human rehabilitation outcomes.