Complementary therapies for stroke towards neurorecovery

Despite rapid advances in stroke management and rehabilitation therapy, no effective treatment is available for the later recovery phase following stroke. Therefore, complementary and alternative medicine system (CAM) has emerged as promising adjunct therapy for stroke management. CAM has its own cultural and philosophical aspects with different societies that drive as an inspiration and perception of less harmful and more effective strategies for stroke rehabilitation. However, robust scientific studies are required to establish CAM as an alternative therapy adjunct to conventional stroke treatment. A thorough literature search was performed using standard web databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Scopus using ‘complementary and alternative medicine in stroke’ as the major keyword. Research and review articles containing latest preclinical and clinical studies were primarily included in this review. Moreover, different stroke treatment strategies mentioned in ancient scriptures were also considered. CAM therapy is parallelly practiced along with clinically approved stroke therapy worldwide. It has been also reported beneficial on post-stroke neurorehabilitation in different population-based studies. Currently, CAM suffers various limitations, including defined end-point, clear outcomes, the exact mechanism of action, and proper assessment of the patient’s physical and emotional needs. Nevertheless, CAM is being used to treat various diseases globally. However, their usage pattern differs according to a population's geography and socio-cultural background. The review briefly discusses different CAM used as stroke rehabilitation therapy and their promising role in adjunct stroke management strategies.