Head Trauma News and Research

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Head injury refers to trauma to the head. This may or may not include injury to the brain. However, the terms traumatic brain injury and head injury are often used interchangeably in the medical literature.

Study shows physicians accept shaken baby syndrome, abusive head trauma as valid diagnoses

Survey data reveals a high degree of medical consensus that shaking a young child is capable of producing subdural hematoma (a life-threatening pooling of blood outside the brain), severe retinal hemorrhage, coma or death, according to a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

22 Jul 2016

Study provides more insights into abusive head injury in small children

Abusive head injury, sometimes referred to as shaken baby syndrome or non-accidental trauma, is the third leading cause of head injuries in small children in the US. For children under the age of 1 year, it is the cause of the majority of serious head injuries.

12 Jul 2016

Survey reveals prevalence of concussions in water polo players

A first-of-its-kind survey has confirmed what some water polo players - especially goalies - have long suspected: Concussions seem to be prevalent in the sport.

27 Jun 2016

New study reveals increasing trend in Parkinson's disease over 30 years

The incidence of Parkinson's disease and parkinsonism increased significantly in 30 years from 1976 to 2005, Mayo Clinic researchers reported today in a study in JAMA Neurology.

21 Jun 2016

Researcher traces origins of double-trauma amnesia cure belief

Spiers, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Psychology, traced the origins of the double-trauma amnesia cure belief in a paper for Neurology titled, "The Head Trauma Amnesia Cure: The Making of a Medical Myth."

15 Jun 2016

Study provides new insight into poorly understood effects of high explosive blasts in male soldiers

Scientists have identified a distinctive pattern of injury in the brains of eight deceased military personnel who survived high explosive attacks and died between 4 days and 9 years later from their injuries or other causes.

13 Jun 2016

Supportive leadership can help overcome language barriers to educate new parents about SBS/AHT

Language is a key obstacle to meeting guidelines for educating parents of newborns about "shaken baby syndrome"—also called abusive head trauma (SBS/AHT), reports a study in the Journal of Trauma Nursing, official publication of the Society of Trauma Nurses. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

2 Jun 2016

Researchers use high-power prisms to design new eyeglasses to expand visual fields of hemianopia patients

Researchers from the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School have designed three new eyeglasses using high-power prisms to optimally expand the visual fields of patients with hemianopia, a condition in which the visual fields of both eyes are cut by half.

18 May 2016

IUPUI assistant professor to study role of deficient pain modulatory systems on post-traumatic headaches

An assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology in the IU School of Physical Education and Tourism Management at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis has been awarded a grant to study the role of deficient pain modulatory systems on chronic post-traumatic headaches afflicting hundreds of thousands of people with mild traumatic brain injuries.

30 Mar 2016

Kids with minor head injuries may not require hospitalization, study suggests

Challenging the longstanding practice of keeping all children with head injuries in the hospital overnight, new research from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital suggests that patients with simple skull fractures can be sent home safely if they have no evidence of brain injury and no neurological symptoms.

24 Mar 2016

Orexigen Therapeutics, Valeant Pharmaceuticals sign distribution agreement for Mysimba

Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. today announced Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. will commercialize Mysimba (naltrexone HCl / bupropion HCl prolonged release) in Central and Eastern Europe.

15 Mar 2016

Researchers find variability in definitions for reasonable medical threshold in child abuse cases

Physicians use different definitions of "reasonable medical certainty" when testifying as expert witnesses in child abuse cases. The variability is troubling because it could result in flawed rulings, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine.

12 Feb 2016

Computerized cognitive rehabilitation can improve outcomes in brain injury survivors

For the first time, researchers have shown that computerized cognitive rehabilitation (a program to help brain-injured or otherwise cognitively impaired individuals to restore normal functioning) can improve attention and executive functioning in brain injury survivors including traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke.

11 Feb 2016

People with traumatic brain injuries may have buildup of plaques related to Alzheimer's disease

A new study suggests that people with brain injuries following head trauma may have buildup of the plaques related to Alzheimer's disease in their brains. The research is published in the February 3, 2016, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

4 Feb 2016

New article suggests that playing American football may contribute to hypertension

As National Football League playoff games are underway, a new article published in the "Hypotheses" section of the January 2016 issue of The FASEB Journal, suggests that the toll the sport takes on players' bodies extends beyond head trauma and damage to limbs and joints. The trauma and damage associated with football participation may also be linked to elevations in blood pressure through immune system activation and inflammation.

12 Jan 2016

Concussion expert shares important information on sports-related concussions

The Sports Concussion Program in the Children's Orthopaedic Center at Children's Hospital Los Angeles is the only pediatric program of its kind in Southern California.

26 Dec 2015

Boxing more dangerous than mixed martial arts, shows study

Mixed martial arts has a reputation for being one of the most brutal and bloody of all contact sports, but the reality is boxing poses a greater risk of serious injury, according to new research from the University of Alberta.

6 Nov 2015

Study finds no link between intervention and state-level rates of shaken baby cases

A new evaluation of a statewide shaken baby prevention effort found that the number of calls to a nurse advice line from North Carolina parents who called because of a crying baby were reduced in the first 2 years after the intervention was implemented in 2007.

27 Oct 2015

Researchers develop strategies to prevent pediatric head injuries from toppled TV sets

Researchers from the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) reviewed medical articles describing head injuries caused by toppled television sets in children 0 to 18 years of age. These injuries, which can be severe and sometimes fatal in small children, are often unwitnessed by adult caregivers, indicating a lack of awareness of the dangers posed to toddlers by TV sets that are not securely mounted.

29 Sep 2015

New app may help athletes identify possible concussion symptoms

Sports-related concussions have sparked a national debate, multiple lawsuits and new concussion-management protocols in the NCAA and NFL in the last few years. Despite all the attention to concussion and its risks, many student-athletes either don't recognize the signs of concussion -- or won't report them if they do.

28 Sep 2015