Weight gain in post-seized 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 acepromazine to facilitate survival. After four days (1) 8 mg of acetylsalicylic 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 non-seized controls. Within one week all pharmacological treatments promoted more weight recovery than food mush only. The rats receiving aspirin (equivalent to 3 tablets/day for humans) showed the greatest early recovery. After 15 days of treatment the pharmacologically treated seized rats had returned to baseline weight and did not differ from normals whereas seized rats given only food mush had not. We suggest inhibiting prostaglandins by anti-inflammatory compounds or stimulating the GABA shunt pathway through enhanced dietary glucose to accelerate weight gain following the significant loss that accompanies brain injury.