Patients suffering from sever brain injuries may soon have a drug that can help them recover more quickly. The drug, amantadine hydrochloride is used to treat Parkinson’s Disease but a new blind study of 184 patients found that it can help speed up brain recovery efforts after a traumatic injury.

While the drug didn’t show vast improvement, the amount it did show over a very short period of time has led researchers to believe that it could be used as a first therapy to help brain-injured patients start off on the right footing.

Researchers who took patients off the drug found that those patients recovery slowed and the placebo group caught back up.

One of the researchers tells the New York Times:

“The main finding is that on every single behavioral domain measured, we had a higher incidence of recovery in the amantadine group than in the placebo group.”

While the findings are promising some experts warn that the results were modest at best, noting that the drug isn’t going to likely wake someone who has been in an unresponsive state for a long period of time.  Another doctor is more excited about the drugs efficacy, noting:

“This study puts the traumatic brain injury field on the first step of the ladder to developing scientific treatments. We’ve been trying to get there for a long time.”

Would you be willing to take a drug meant for Parkinson’s Disease treatment if it could potentially help you heal your brain at a faster rate?

Parkinson’s Disease Drug Could Help Accelerate Brain Damage Recovery Efforts [Study] is a post from: The Inquisitr