Traumatic Brain Injury News and Research

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Traumatic brain injury (TBI), a form of acquired brain injury, occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue. Symptoms of a TBI can be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the extent of the damage to the brain. A person with a mild TBI may remain conscious or may experience a loss of consciousness for a few seconds or minutes. Other symptoms of mild TBI include headache, confusion, lightheadedness, dizziness, blurred vision or tired eyes, ringing in the ears, bad taste in the mouth, fatigue or lethargy, a change in sleep patterns, behavioral or mood changes, and trouble with memory, concentration, attention, or thinking. A person with a moderate or severe TBI may show these same symptoms, but may also have a headache that gets worse or does not go away, repeated vomiting or nausea, convulsions or seizures, an inability to awaken from sleep, dilation of one or both pupils of the eyes, slurred speech, weakness or numbness in the extremities, loss of coordination, and increased confusion, restlessness, or agitation.

New research may explain why youngsters' recovery times vary widely after traumatic brain injury

Why do some youngsters bounce back quickly from a traumatic brain injury, while others suffer devastating side effects for years? New UCLA/USC research suggests that damage to the fatty sheaths around the brain's nerve fibers--not injury severity-- may explain the difference. Published in the July 15 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, the finding identifies possible biomarkers that physicians could use to predict higher-risk patients who require closer monitoring.

15 Jul 2015

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment effective for fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is almost impossible to diagnose. The chronic pain syndrome strikes an estimated 1 in 70 Americans, most of them women. The disorder is often triggered by head trauma, a neurological infection, or severe emotional stress, and is characterized by symptoms such as musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, memory loss and mood swings. Fibromyalgia is often mistaken for other culprits and most patients suffer months, even years, of unrelenting pain before being properly diagnosed. And once diagnosed, patients enjoy little respite because few therapies have been found to be effective in assuaging its symptoms.

15 Jul 2015

Study: Brain activity changes after memory retraining in TBI patients

Kessler Foundation researchers published results of their TBI-MEM trial, the first study to demonstrate significant changes in cerebral activation after memory retraining in individuals with traumatic brain injury.

9 Jul 2015

Kessler Foundation receives $3 million to improve cognition and mobility of people with TBI

The New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research awarded $3 million in grants to Kessler Foundation, half of its total grant distribution in 2015, to improve cognition and mobility of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

1 Jul 2015

ZEISS and University of California Berkeley launch public-private partnership to support brain microscopy Innovation Center

ZEISS announces that it is participating in a new public-private partnership with UC Berkeley as part of the Brain Microscopy Innovation Center (BrainMIC), a component of the Berkeley BRAIN Initiative.

From ZEISS Microscopy GmbH 22 Jun 2015

TSRI chemists invent scalable method for synthesizing brain-protecting compound

Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute have invented the first practical, scalable method for synthesizing jiadifenolide, a plant-derived molecule that may have powerful brain-protecting properties.

17 Jun 2015

Brain Injury Services of SWVA receives WWP grant to provide tele-health program for veterans with TBI

Brain Injury Services of SWVA has received a grant from Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) to provide a unique tele-health program, the Community Living Connection (CLiC) for veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI), to overcome the diverse challenges of the complex condition. WWP's Grant Program, now in its fourth year, is expanding the availability of programs and services that provide support to this generation of injured service members.

11 Jun 2015

Rapid cooling procedures prior to catheterization reduce extent of myocardial infarction

After an acute myocardial infarction, patients treated with rapid lowering of body temperature by combined cold saline infusion and endovascular cooling had less heart muscle damage and reduced incidence of heart failure. Therapeutic hypothermia was especially protective against heart muscle damage in patients with a large area of myocardium at risk according to an analysis of two clinical trials published in Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

10 Jun 2015

NYU Langone Medical Center celebrates 65th anniversary of Rusk Rehabilitation

Howard A. Rusk, MD (1901-1989), a tall, soft-spoken physician from NYU Langone Medical Center and widely considered "the father of rehabilitation medicine," set about to establish a facility founded on the belief that care should focus on the whole person—not just on their physical illness or disability, but also on their emotional, psychological, and social needs as well.

10 Jun 2015

Study examines how improvised explosive devices can lead to traumatic brain injury

By accounting for a rush of blood to the head, University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineers have found that blast waves from concussive explosions may put far greater strain on the brain than previously thought.

9 Jun 2015

Study: Children with TBI more likely to experience daytime sleepiness, sleep disturbances

A new study suggests that children with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) have poorer sleep and more daytime sleepiness in comparison to healthy children.

9 Jun 2015

Sleep helps overcome memory deficits after concussion

After a concussion, a person can be left with disturbed sleep, memory deficits and other cognitive problems for years, but a new study led by Rebecca Spencer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests that despite these abnormalities, sleep still helps them to overcome memory deficits, and the benefit is Frontier in Human Neurosciequivalent to that seen in individuals without a history of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as concussion.

5 Jun 2015

Wounded Warrior Project initiates $100 million commitment to launch national medical care network

Wounded Warrior Project, a national nonprofit veterans service organization based in Jacksonville, Florida, has initiated a $100 million commitment to launch a first-of-its-kind national medical care network to connect wounded veterans and their families with world-class, individualized health care.

3 Jun 2015

Women who suffer from fibromyalgia benefit from hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Women who suffer from fibromyalgia benefit from a treatment regimen in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, according to researchers at Rice University and institutes in Israel.

3 Jun 2015

New study on vestibulo-ocular dysfunction in pediatric sports-related concussion

Researchers from the Canada North Concussion Network in Manitoba investigated the frequency of vestibulo-ocular dysfunction in children and adolescents with sports-related concussion and found that its presence was predictive of a prolonged recovery.

2 Jun 2015

RI-MUHC researchers receive innovations grants to build technologies to address cancer challenges

"Thanks to the Innovation Fund, our donors to the MGH Foundation and the vision of the Max Pacioretty Foundation, this new specialized MRI will place the Montreal General Hospital as one of the leading level 1 trauma centres in Canada. This valuable piece of healthcare technology will also allow our world-class researchers to better understand brain injuries, which will lead to improved patient diagnosis and treatment," adds Jean-Guy Gourdeau, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Montreal General Hospital Foundation at the MUHC.

1 Jun 2015

People with cognitive impairment have altered responses to pain

People with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment (CI) have altered responses to pain, with many conditions associated with increased pain sensitivity, concludes a research review in PAIN, the official publication of the International Association for the Study of Pain.

29 May 2015

Strategy-based cognitive training improves cognitive, psychological health after traumatic brain injury

In the first study of its kind, veterans and civilians with traumatic brain injury showed improved cognitive performance and psychological and neural health following strategy-based cognitive training. The Department of Defense-funded study, published this week in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of cognitive neuroscientists, rehabilitation specialists, and neuroimaging experts from the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas.

29 May 2015

Depression may be a risk factor for Parkinson's disease, say Umeå University researchers

People with depression may be more likely to develop Parkinson's disease, according to a large study by researchers at Umeå University, Sweden, published on 20 May, 2015, in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

21 May 2015

Vitamin E helps build strong muscles

Body builders have it right: vitamin E does help build strong muscles, and scientists appear to have figured out one important way it does it.

19 May 2015