Impact of Different Pharmacological Treatments on Outcomes in Adult Rats after Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Many pharmacological interventions have been developed to treat Traumatic brain injury and its alterations. Many interventions have been investigated pre clinically to evaluate their effects on motor, cognition and behavioural functioning following Traumatic Brain injury. But, most of these studies have not been able to provide sufficient conclusions regarding the efficacy of these drugs mostly due to their small sample sizes. So, a systematic review and meta-analysis (1990-2020) was conducted to examine the effects of pharmacological interventions in rodents after traumatic brain injury on functional outcomes. The PubMed database searches were conducted using 56 key terms. Weighted mean effect sizes, percent overlap, fail-safe (Nfs) and confidence intervals were calculated for the interventions. Total, 125 interventions were evaluated in 285 preclinical studies using 51 activities. Interventions investigated by multiple studies and with great treatment benefits were majorly focused. Out of all the interventions, 42 improved the cognitive outcomes, 44 improves motor and 6 improved the behavioural functioning. The treatment benefits were majorly affected by drug dosage and treatment intervals used in the studies.