Traumatic Brain Injury Blog

head

Tagged with “TBI recovery”

March 28, 2023

Recent study finds incomplete recovery at 5 years in 53% of mTBI patients

A large TRACK-TBI cohort study published in JAMA Network Open finds incomplete recovery at 5 years in 53% of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) patients, dictating need for longer term rehabilitation.

A multi-center transforming research and clinical knowledge in TBI (TRACK-TBI) cohort study published March 20, 2023 in JAMA Network Open followed 1196 patients at 18 level 1.0 trauma care centers in the US over five years, including patient with mTBI, patients with moderate-severe brain injury (msTBI) and orthopedic controls. It found persistently elevated rates of incomplete functional outcomes in 53% of mild traumatic brain injury patients and 83% of msTBI patients compared to controls, supporting a need for longer term monitoring and rehabilitation.

Read More

September 12, 2022

Resveratrol: Another Promising Research Based Alternative Therapy To Supplement TBI Treatment

One of the most frequent questions I get from TBI clients in my Vermont law practice is: “Are there alternative therapies I can explore to help support my recovery from a traumatic brain injury without risking further harm?” Physicians practicing “integrative oncology” offer a multi-disciplinary approach to patient care for cancer that implements complementary therapies in collaboration with conventional treatment. Although TBI medicine is not as well organized, the peer reviewed TBI literature does support similar evidence-based complementary therapies for the treatment of TBI. Several have been featured in prior posts in this blog, including yoga and other mindfulness based therapies, exercise therapies, dietary therapies (especially foods rich in ‘polyphenols” found in many fruits and vegetables) and promising supplements including melatonin and curcumin (found in tumeric, curcumin reduces the levels of two enzymes in the body that cause inflammation.)

Another supplement receiving increasing attention in the literature is resveratrol, a “phytoalexin” produced by plants such as the red grape in response to various stresses, which promotes disease resistance. Read More

Tagged with: ,
June 29, 2021

Defense Department Study Finds that Targeted Treatment Improves Chronic Symptoms Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

A recent Defense Department/University of Pittsburgh study confirms three important points made in prior posts:

  1. So called “mild” traumatic brain injury (“mTBI”) can have long-term, disabling consequences (in both civilian and military populations);
  2. that this injury is heterogeneous in both presentation and clinical outcome (in other words, every injury is different); and
  3. that interventions targeted to the individual presentation of the injury (whether it is predominantly vestibular, cognitive, oculomotor, headache, sleep or mood related, or some combination) can reduce symptoms in otherwise intractable patients.

The message is that ignoring the symptoms and hoping that they will ultimately disappear – the approach often taken in the past – is not wise for either the individual or for society as a whole. Read More

June 1, 2021

Emerging Evidence indicates that the Composition of the Gut Microbiome is Altered after a Traumatic Brain Injury

In the first systematic review on this topic, researchers at the University of Texas report on growing consistent evidence that traumatic brain injury (TBI) changes the gut microbiome. Evaluating these changes, they conclude, will be a fertile ground for new therapeutic interventions. Read More

April 16, 2019

Dartmouth Study Recognizes LoveYourBrain Yoga as an Effective Tool for Community Based Rehabilitation For People with Traumatic Brain Injury

Funded by the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire, a group of researchers at Dartmouth assessed the effectiveness of the program by conducting semi-structured interviews of 13 participants with traumatic brain injury and 3 caregivers who had completed the 6 week, 6 session program.  The results are published in the February, 2019 issue of Disability Rehabilitation.

Kevin Pearce, a Vermont resident and world leading professional snowboarder, suffered a near fatal traumatic brain injury while training for the 2010 winter Olympics. Kevin’s remarkable resilience since his injury has inspired millions through the award-winning HBO documentary, The Crash Reel. Read More

October 4, 2018

Use of Melatonin for Treatment of TBI and Sleep Disturbance Following TBI

There’s promising research on the use of melatonin for acute treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and for treatment of sleep disturbance following TBI coming from two recent peer-reviewed papers. One, published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, reviews the literature and performs meta-analyses of the data in studies examining the use of melatonin shortly after injury.

The other, published in the journal BMC Med, reports on a randomized controlled trial examining the efficacy of melatonin in treating sleep disturbance following TBI.

Melatonin is an important hormone made by the pineal gland that helps control a person’s sleep and wake cycles. Read More

April 18, 2018

Depression following Concussion is Highly Prevalent and Needs to Be Monitored and Treated

A new study published in the Journal of Neurotrauma highlights the importance of monitoring TBI patients for the presence of depression symptoms and providing clinical support to prevent minor depression from converting into major depression.

Canadian researchers assessed 236 individuals diagnosed with traumatic brain injury at 4, 8 and 12 months following injury. The results confirm prior studies showing that depression in very prevalent following TBI. Read More

January 23, 2018

TBI can trigger Pathology in the Gut-Brain Axis and Increase Infections

Several of my traumatic brain injury (TBI) clients have been treated for gut issues – issues that were not present prior to their TBI. Insurers, of course, insist that this treatment cannot be related to the brain injury. The scientific literature indicates otherwise. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine recently found a two-way link between TBI and intestinal changes.

The findings indicate that this two way interaction may contribute to increased infections in TBI patients and may also worsen chronic brain damage. Read More

January 10, 2018

Combining Ritalin and Cognitive Behavioral Rehabilitation Shows Promise Following TBI

A treatment protocol combining Ritalin, a stimulant commonly used for ADHD, and a form of Cognitive Behavioral Rehabilitation known as “Memory and Attention Adaptation Training” (MAAT) shows great promise for improving persistent traumatic brain injury (TBI) symptoms, including attention, episodic and working memory and executive function. The research supporting this finding, led by Thomas McAllister and Brenna McDonald at the Indiana School of Medicine, was published in 2017 in the journal of the American College of NeuropsychopharmacologyRead More

November 6, 2017

The Challenges of Concussion Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment: The Most Complicated Disease of the Most Complex Organ of the Body

A review published in the September 2017 issue of Frontiers in Neurology proposes use of “systems science” to better understand concussion diagnosis and prognosis.  This is a discipline that analyzes complex problems as whole systems and integrates research findings from different disciplines. In explaining the need for a systems approach, the reviewers note one description of concussion that is uniformly recognized – that it is a highly heterogeneous phenomenon, with numerous factors interacting dynamically to influence an individual’s recovery trajectory. (This concept is highlighted in the title of one of the Concussion WebCasts made available by the American Association of Family Physicians : “If you have seen one concussion, you have seen one concussion.”) Read More