Purpose: We conducted a proof-of-concept study to evaluate the effects of galantamine treatment versus placebo combined to cognitive rehabilitation (CR) after stroke.
Materials and methods: In this 12-week, double blinded, randomized, controlled trial, patients were assigned to either combined approach of galantamine and CR (G-CR) or placebo and CR (P-CR). Primary outcome was the proportion of patients who crossed over from vascular cognitive disorder (VCD) to no-VCD at 12 weeks. Secondary outcomes included changes in cognition, mood, quality of life and the N-back fMRI paradigm, assessed at baseline, 6 and 12 weeks and after an 8-week washout period.
Results: Ten patients were allocated to G-RC group, 12 to the P-RC group. After 12 weeks, 40.1% of all patients converted to no-VCD with similar proportions between groups. Both groups showed improvements in episodic and working memory, executive and quality of life after 6 weeks of CR. Decreased depression and anxiety were noted, and all benefits persisted after the washout period. An interaction effect was observed in the right parietal lobule during the N-back task.
Conclusions: Interventions lead to improved cognition and distinct cortical reorganization without being able to establish correlation between neural changes and behavioral measures.
Keywords: N-back; Post-stroke cognitive impairment; acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEI); cognitive rehabilitation; functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).