Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

An unprecedented, public-private partnership funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) is being launched to drive the development of better-run clinical trials and may lead to the first successful treatments for traumatic brain injury, a condition affecting not only athletes and soldiers, but also millions among the general public, ranging from youngsters to elders. Under the partnership, officially launched Oct. 1 with a $17 million, five-year award from the DoD, the research team, representing many universities, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), companies and philanthropies, will examine data from thousands of patients in order to identify effective measures of brain injury and recovery, using biomarkers from blood, new imaging equipment and software, and other tools. Each year more than 2.5 million people in the U.S. seek medical care for traumatic brain injuries that arise when blows to the body or nearby explosions cause the brain to collide with the inside of the skull. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention an estimated 2 percent of the U.S. population now lives with TBI-caused disabilities, at an annual cost of about $77 billion. No treatment for acute TBI and concussion has proved to be effective. TBI is really a … Continue reading →

Photo by Richard Gwin Teressa Harvey, 64, can sit in her Lawrence mobile home and smile nowadays, ever since a case worker with Amerigroup, which operates the state's Medicaid program, last year discovered she had an undiagnosed traumatic brain injury and began getting her treatment for it. "I have a chance to be a new person," Harvey said, winding thread around a dreamcatcher. Photo by Richard Gwin Teressa Harvey, 64, makes a dreamcatcher on a recent day at her Lawrence mobile home. On a recent day, Teressa Harvey welcomed visitors into her Lawrence mobile home. This might not seem like a remarkable occurrence, but for Harvey it was a huge step in her recovery process. A year and a half ago, she would hardly leave the house, had her windows blacked out and certainly wouldn't let anybody inside. She communicated in one of two ways: through crying or explosive anger. She was on a physical-disability waiting list to receive home-based treatment services. But a case worker with Amerigroup, one of the three managed-care organizations that took over operation of the state's Medicaid program in 2013 under KanCare, reached out to Harvey and immediately realized her problems weren't physical in nature: … Continue reading →

Toward the end of his pro football career, Dave Herman would often wake up the morning after a game and not remember which team hed played against, much less the score. When his son would ask him what had happened in the previous days game, Herman wouldnt have a ready answer. Id say, Give me the paper and well find out, Herman remembers. Id have some recollection, but not of the score or who had a great game. Even the highlight of his career, 1969s Super Bowl III, in which he played a major role helping the New York Jets pull off one of the greatest upsets in football history, is a blur. I dont remember the end of the game, says the 73-year-old former offensive lineman, whose tenacious blocking enabled quarterback Joe Namath to engineer the stunning victory over the Colts. I remember reading about it because that was a huge, huge game. Not until decades later did these and other lapses lead Herman into the midst of research on and debate about a degenerative neurologic disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy. For years Herman thought the game-related episodes of amnesia were benign, just his normal. But as he got … Continue reading →

The signs of dementia are the same in any language. And symptoms of traumatic brain injury are similar regardless of socioeconomic status or place of birth. But the tools neuropsychologists use to assess and measure cognitive ability are not necessarily standardized from one country to another -- or even from one neighborhood to another nearby. Enrique Lopez, PsyD, director of the Health Psychology Training Program and assistant professor in the Cedars-Sinai Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences and the Department of Neurology, is working to change that. He is collaborating with a group of treatment professionals, educators and other neuropsychologists to "increase available norms" for different cultures and languages. They have established searchable databases -- including what is believed to be the most extensive collection of neuropsychological measures in the world -- that are available online and free to researchers and clinicians around the globe. "Neuropsychologists have measures that we use to assess cognitive abilities -- such as attention span, memory and language skills -- using a variety of tests and tasks that may take six to eight hours to complete," Lopez said. "But we have to be certain that personal characteristics -- such as age, level of education, culture … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise LOS ANGELES (Oct. 2, 2014) The signs of dementia are the same in any language. And symptoms of traumatic brain injury are similar regardless of socioeconomic status or place of birth. But the tools neuropsychologists use to assess and measure cognitive ability are not necessarily standardized from one country to another or even from one neighborhood to another nearby. Enrique Lopez, PsyD, director of the Health Psychology Training Program and assistant professor in the Cedars-Sinai Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences and the Department of Neurology, is working to change that. He is collaborating with a group of treatment professionals, educators and other neuropsychologists to increase available norms for different cultures and languages. They have established searchable databases including what is believed to be the most extensive collection of neuropsychological measures in the world that are available online and free to researchers and clinicians around the globe. Neuropsychologists have measures that we use to assess cognitive abilities such as attention span, memory and language skills using a variety of tests and tasks that may take six to eight hours to complete, Lopez said. But we have to be certain that personal characteristics … Continue reading →

A simple blood test could one day help doctors determine whether someone suffered a traumatic brain injury and what type of treatment is needed, according to University of Pittsburgh researchers who on Tuesday joined a large-scale partnership focused on the life-threatening injuries. The public-private partnership will use $17 million from the Department of Defense but could benefit more than soldiers injured on the battlefield, brain injury experts said. Athletes and young children are among the more than 2.5 million people who suffer traumatic brain injuries every year in the United States. What we are looking to evaluate are biological measures to assess whether someone has a traumatic brain injury. Is there something in the blood that we can measure? Is there something that we can look at in a picture of the brain that can tell us if a person has or doesn't have a traumatic brain injury? said Stephen Wisniewski, senior investigator of the TBI Endpoints Development Award and co-director of the Epidemiology Data Center at Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health. An estimated 2 percent of the population lives with disabilities caused by traumatic brain injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Brain injury experts … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 30-Sep-2014 Contact: Jeffrey Norris jeffrey.norris@ucsf.edu 415-502-6397 University of California - San Francisco @ucsf An unprecedented, public-private partnership funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) is being launched to drive the development of better-run clinical trials and may lead to the first successful treatments for traumatic brain injury, a condition affecting not only athletes and soldiers, but also millions among the general public, ranging from youngsters to elders. Under the partnership, officially launched October 1, 2014 with a $17 million, five-year award from the DoD, the research team, representing many universities, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), companies and philanthropies, will examine data from thousands of patients in order to identify effective measures of brain injury and recovery, using biomarkers from blood, new imaging equipment and software, and other tools. Each year more than 2.5 million people in the U.S. seek medical care for traumatic brain injuries that arise when blows to the body or nearby explosions cause the brain to collide with the inside of the skull. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention an estimated 2 percent of the U.S. population now lives with TBI-caused disabilities, at an annual cost of about $77 … Continue reading →

VIENNA, VA (PRWEB) September 30, 2014 The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) filed a second motion today in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The organization is asking the court to grant the organization amicus curiae (friend of the court) status on the proposed settlement between the National Football League (NFL) and former players (case 2:12-md-02323-AB). In addition to the motion, BIAA filed an affidavit outlining the organizations serious concerns about the flaws and limitations of the settlement as it is currently written. Brent Masel, M.D., National Medical Director of BIAA, and Greg OShanick, National Medical Director Emeritus, drafted the affidavit in support of giving BIAA amicus status. Following are some of the areas of concern noted in the affidavit. "The outcome of this settlement will have a significant impact on all future brain injury prevention, research, treatment, and education, said Susan Connors, president and CEO of BIAA. In addition to the players, the decisions made in this case will affect the 2.5 million children and adults whose brains are injured in the U.S. each year. It is on their behalf that we have renewed our motion for amicus status." To download copies of … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise An unprecedented, public-private partnership funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) is being launched to drive the development of better-run clinical trials and may lead to the first successful treatments for traumatic brain injury, a condition affecting not only athletes and soldiers, but also millions among the general public, ranging from youngsters to elders. Under the partnership, officially launched October 1, 2014 with a $17 million, five-year award from the DoD, the research team, representing many universities, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), companies and philanthropies, will examine data from thousands of patients in order to identify effective measures of brain injury and recovery, using biomarkers from blood, new imaging equipment and software, and other tools. Each year more than 2.5 million people in the U.S. seek medical care for traumatic brain injuries that arise when blows to the body or nearby explosions cause the brain to collide with the inside of the skull. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention an estimated 2 percent of the U.S. population now lives with TBI-caused disabilities, at an annual cost of about $77 billion. No treatment for acute TBI and concussion … Continue reading →

Turku, Finland (PRWEB) October 01, 2014 Medicortex Finland Oy is a start-up pharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of neurodegenerative conditions. The company is developing a pharmaceutical therapy, which will limit the long-term effects of brain injuries, including the types of severe brain trauma that veterans may have received in combat. The companys other mission is to identify a biomarker and a diagnostic test to reliably establish the severity and extent of a brain injury. The company has recently launched a crowdfunding campaign accessible at http://privatequity.biz/stock/medicortex-finland-oy/. In addition to soldiers in combat, athletes and sports professionals are amongst the population most likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury. Football players aren't the only brain-injured sports figures in the news today. The sports world surely remembers Michael Schumacher, the German race car driver and Formula One winner, who suffered a near-fatal ski accident and fought a serious brain injury. He was brought out of coma that he was in for several weeks due to TBI he suffered by his injuries. No matter how much attention these stories receive, the real story of sports-related TBI lies in the sheer magnitude of the problem. Numerous studies have found evidence that even one minor … Continue reading →