Effect of naloxone on acute stroke.

Naloxone was administered intravenously in a dose of 1.2 mg to 24 patients in the first 24 hours after they had suffered a stroke. Twenty patients were treated with placebo. In the naloxone-treated group a dose as low as 0.8 mg produced a slight but statistically significant improvement in neurologic status, and this improvement continued until the end of the observation period (two weeks). In the placebo group neurologic improvement was slower and less pronounced. The present results support a previous observation that naloxone may be a valuable drug in the early stage of acute cerebrovascular disease.