When someone has a stroke, recovery can be a long and painful process. Because a stroke involves a lack of oxygen to the brain for a significant period of time, brain cells can die. The brain is incredibly resilient, and it is often possible to create new pathways within the brain. But this takes time and is seldom easy.
However, new research indicates that a certain medication might help those that are recovering from a stroke to see recovery come a little bit faster. A medication called gabapentin, which is usually used for treating seizures, has shown evidence of helping the brain to recover more efficiently after a stroke takes place. A stroke damages part of the brain, which causes cell death. In order to regain things like movement, coordination, and speech, the brain’s cells must learn new ways of communicating with each other. Preliminary research indicates that gabapentin helps these pathways to be established more quickly.
The research was conducted by a team based out of Ohio State University. They published their findings in the journal, Brain. Hopefully, this research helps to direct future research so that a better understanding of why this drug works is established. Hopefully, it leads to better outcomes for those that are recovering from a stroke. Although a lot of progress has been made regarding stroke research over the last ten years, there’s still a long way to go when it comes to improving outcomes for those that are going through the recovery process.
Regardless of what your loved one’s treatment team decides is the best course of action for stroke recovery, the road is never easy. There will always be bumps along the way and there will be setbacks, both physically and emotionally. Watching a loved one go through this is not an easy thing to do–it takes a toll on the entire family.
This is one of the reasons why something like in-home care can be so valuable to a family in this situation. Rather than struggle with this on your own, professional level care comes to you to help make life a little bit easier on a daily basis. Because care is done on such a personal level in a one to one fashion, it makes the individual needs that someone is experiencing more naturally met. It makes care tailor suited to the needs of the person, not to the expertise of the caregiver. It helps to ensure that care is given in the most helpful way possible.
Want to talk more? We’re here! Give us a call or send an email. One of our care team members would be happy to answer questions or even have an in-depth conversation about what in-home care is, what it does, and how it might look taking your unique set of circumstances into account. Every family and every situation is a little bit different, but in-home care can be beneficial for almost everyone. We can discuss the details during a free consultation and help get you pointed in the right direction.
Leave a Reply