Rotigotine as Pharmacological Augmentation Strategy of Early Rehabilitation of Acute Ischemic Stroke Patient

Early rehabilitation in stroke patient is generally regarded as key strategy to improve clinical outcome and patient’s quality of life. Based on theoretical considerations of brain plasticity and experimental studies pharmacological augmentation of stroke rehabilitation might be a reasonable intervention to further improve stroke patient prognosis. Rotigotine with transdermal delivery system continuous over 24 hrs that provides an exciting and important opportunity to manipulate the brain’s pharmacological environment at a time when physiological remodeling of the brain is occurring through conventional rehabilitation treatments [1]. Understanding the relationship between pharmacologically primed neuroplasticity and practice dependent neuroplasticity is of major scientific interest in understanding how the brain adapts to injury. Some previous studies have suggested that levodopa in combination with physiotherapy may have a positive effect on motor deficits following stroke [2,3].