Weight gain in postseized rats is facilitated by adding aspirin, glucose, or glucose-taurine-acetaminophen to food mush

Adult male rats were seized with lithium and pilocarpine and administered a cepromazine to facilitate survival. After four days (1) 8 mg of acetylsalic ylic acid (aspirin), (2) 100 mg taurine-15 mg acetaminophen (Tylenol)-40 mg glucose, (3) 40 mg glucose, or (4) water was added to the food mush daily for 30 days. A fifth group served as nonseized controls. Within one week A pharmacological treatments promoted more weight recovery than food mush onl y. The rats receiving aspirin (equivalent to 3 tablets/day for humans) show ed the greatest early recovery. After 15 days of treatment the pharmacologi cally treated seized rats had returned to baseline weight and did not diffe r from normals whereas seized rats given only food mush had not. We suggest inhibiting prostaglandins by anti-inflammatory compounds or stimulating th e GABA shunt pathway through enhanced dietary glucose to accelerate weight gain following the significant loss that accompanies brain injury.