Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

Home > News > health-news Washington, June 27 : Giving a ray of hope to heart patients, a research team in the US' University of Texas has suggested that a drug that blocks the action of an enzyme could substantially reduce brain damage if given immediately after a stroke. "If you inhibit (enzyme) Cdk5, then the vast majority of brain tissue stays alive without oxygen for up to one hour," said James Bibb, associate professor of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics at the University of Texas. The team found that Cdk5 is a central player in nerve cell death following brain injury and can lead to cancer. Earlier, many scientists thought aberrant Cdk5 activity was pivotal in the development of Alzheimer's disease and that Cdk5 inhibition might be beneficial as a treatment. Now it is proved that Cdk5 has both good and bad effects. When working normally, Cdk5 adds phosphates to other proteins that are important to healthy brain function. "Cdk5 regulates communication between nerve cells and is essential for proper brain function. Therefore, blocking Cdk5 long-term may not be beneficial," Bibb noted. "Until now, the connection between Cdk5 and stroke injury was unknown, as was the potential benefit of acute Cdk5 … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 25-Jun-2014 Contact: Daphne Watrin d.watrin@iospress.com 31-206-883-355 IOS Press Amsterdam, NL, June 25, 2014 Individuals with brain injury and their families often struggle to accept the associated personality changes. The behavior of individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) is typically associated with problems such as aggression, agitation, non-compliance, and depression. Treatment goals often focus on changing the individual's behavior, frequently using consequence-based procedures or medication. In the current issue of NeuroRehabilitation leading researchers challenge this approach and recommend moving emphasis from dysfunction to competence. "Behavior dysfunction may be best construed as a sentinel rather than a cause. It signals that a person is beyond his or her personal capacities and needs contextually relevant supports," says Guest Editor Harvey E. Jacobs, PhD, a noted clinician practicing in Richmond, Virginia. "The purpose of this special issue is to move beyond the person and the brain and to understand more clearly how our behavior, especially those involved in service delivery or caregiving, directly or through our systems, diagnostic and treatment perspectives, cultures, and perceptions, directly affects behavior associated with ABI, with an emphasis on competence over dysfunction." Eminent experts have contributed a series of insightful reviews. Randall D. Buzan, Jeff Kupfer, … Continue reading →

by KAREN WEINTRAUB / Special for USA TODAY KING5.com Posted on June 26, 2014 at 1:47 PM Updated today at 1:47 PM Veterans who had multiple risk factors such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or heart disease in addition to head injury were more likely to develop dementia. It's not clear why head injuries may play a role in dementia, said lead researcher Deborah Barnes, an epidemiologist at the VA and associate professor at UCSF, but it's possible that the more insults the brain experiences, the more vulnerable it becomes to dementia. It's also plausible that a brain injury could lead directly to the development of brain plaques that eventually cause Alzheimer's, she said. Other researchers were quick to note that the injuries studied were severe, traumatic brain injuries, not the kind of everyday concussions that happen on the soccer field. There's no evidence that those kind of milder injuries lead to later problems, said Jeffrey Kutcher, a neurologist, concussion expert and associate professor at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor. Dementia is caused by a variety of factors, Kutcher said, including genetics, lifestyle and injuries. As it's impossible to completely prevent injuries, more effort should be … Continue reading →

The discovery of a new link between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pain and children with traumatic brain injuries could lead to better treatment methods, according to a new study. University of Queensland researcher Erin Brown said the study, led by the Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine (CONROD), found PTSD was contributing to pain in children with traumatic brain injuries, and not the other way around. It has been well established that PTSD and pain are related after injury, but until now it has been unclear whether pain is causing children to develop PTSD, or whether PTSD is causing the pain, Ms Brown said. The study indicates that PTSD is the driving cause of lingering pain in children with a traumatic brain injury. This contradicts previous theories that PTSD may have been caused by lingering pain. Ms Brown said the study had allowed researchers to propose a new model for understanding how PTSD is related to pain in children with traumatic brain injuries. The findings may aid the clinical treatment of children recovering from head injuries. Our research shows that children with a traumatic brain injury may benefit from being screened for PTSD, Ms Brown said. Those … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise DALLAS June 26, 2014 A drug that blocks the action of the enzyme Cdk5 could substantially reduce brain damage if administered shortly after a stroke, UT Southwestern Medical Center research suggests. The findings, reported in the June 11 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, determined in rodent models that aberrant Cdk5 activity causes nerve cell death during stroke. If you inhibit Cdk5, then the vast majority of brain tissue stays alive without oxygen for up to one hour, said Dr. James Bibb, Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study. This result tells us that Cdk5 is a central player in nerve cell death. More importantly, development of a Cdk5 inhibitor as an acute neuroprotective therapy has the potential to reduce stroke injury. If we could block Cdk5 in patients who have just suffered a stroke, we may be able to reduce the number of patients in our hospitals who become disabled or die from stroke. Doing so would have a major impact on health care, Dr. Bibb said. While several pharmaceutical companies worked to develop Cdk5 inhibitors years ago, these efforts were largely abandoned … Continue reading →

Older military veterans who have suffered a serious head injury are more likely to be diagnosed with dementia than uninjured veterans, according to a new study. The report looked at traumatic brain injury (TBI), which includes concussions, skull fractures and bleeding inside the skull. There have been a fair number of previous studies that have looked at the relationship between TBI and risk of dementia, and some have found an association while others haven't, said lead author Deborah E. Barnes, from the University of California, San Francisco and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She and her colleagues sought to clarify the relationship by taking into account other conditions, like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And we found that, even after accounting for these other factors, older veterans with a history of TBI were 60 percent more likely to develop dementia, Barnes told Reuters Health in an email. Dementia affects five percent of people in their 70s and 37 percent of those in their 90s, according to past research. For the new study, the researchers examined the medical records of more than 188,000 U.S. veterans ages 55 and older who had undergone a medical evaluation between 2000 and … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise Philadelphia, June 25, 2014 The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) today launched the Fetal Neuroprotection and Neuroplasticity Program. Building on growing evidence of the interaction of heart disease and brain development in the fetus, this Program will systematically investigate innovative therapies to protect brain development and to prevent brain injury as early as possible before birth. A joint project of the Hospitals Cardiac Center, the Fetal Heart Program, the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, and the Division of Neurology, it is the first-ever comprehensive program dedicated to prenatal neuroprotection. Unparalleled expertise from many of CHOPs divisions including the Cardiac Center, Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, Neonatology and Radiology makes this program truly unique. While this program will initially focus on the fetus with congenital heart disease, it will expand in the future to include fetuses with other birth defects, such as congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) and pulmonary hypoplasia. In the U.S., approximately one in every 120 newborns is diagnosed with congenital heart disease (CHD), making it the most common birth defect. Many newborns with CHD require either corrective or palliative open-heart surgery. As recently as the 1960s, only 20 percent … Continue reading →

Vienna, VA (PRWEB) June 25, 2014 The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) today applauded the passage of H.R. 1098, the Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization (TBI) Act of 2013, by the United States House of Representatives. The bill was passed unanimously in a voice vote on the evening of June 24, 2014. Approximately 2.5 million Americans experience TBI each year and an estimated 5.3 million Americans are living with long-term, severe disabilities as a result of brain injury. Today is a great day for people with brain injuries, and I applaud the members of the House of Representatives for taking action and reauthorizing this important piece of legislation, said Susan Connors, BIAAs president and CEO. I would also like to thank Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr. and Tom Rooney for their work through the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, and to thank all of our grassroots advocates, without whom this would not have been possible. Originally passed in 1996 and reauthorized in 2000 and 2008, the TBI Act represents a foundation for coordinated and balanced public policy in prevention, education, research, and community living for people with TBI. The TBI Act specifically allocates federal funds for programs supporting individuals with brain … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 11-Jun-2014 Contact: Shelly Kirkland shelly.kirkland@utdallas.edu 972-883-3221 Center for BrainHealth Traumatic brain injuries from sports, recreational activities, falls or car accidents are the leading cause of death and disability in children and adolescents. While previously it was believed that the window for brain recovery was at most one year after injury, new research from the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas published online today in the open-access journal Frontiers in Neurology shows cognitive performance can be improved to significant degrees months, and even years, after injury, given targeted brain training. "The after-effects of concussions and more severe brain injuries can be very different and more detrimental to a developing child or adolescent brain than an adult brain," said Dr. Lori Cook, study author and director of the Center for BrainHealth's pediatric brain injury programs. "While the brain undergoes spontaneous recovery in the immediate days, weeks, and months following a brain injury, cognitive deficits may continue to evolve months to years after the initial brain insult when the brain is called upon to perform higher-order reasoning and critical thinking tasks." Twenty adolescents, ages 12-20 who experienced a traumatic brain injury at least six months prior … Continue reading →

Published on June 12, 2014 Rev. Shelly Pick leads an interactive presentation on her personal experience with brain injury on Wednesday, June 25, 12 to 1 p.m., at Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Library. The vice-president of the Brain Injury Association of Nova Scotia was a young, active and energetic minister to several congregations when a motor vehicle accident resulted in a serious brain injury. She has been on a healing journey for eight years, researching treatment options, realizing gaps in the medical response to brain injury, and taking the sometimes painful daily steps to cope with and overcome her brain injury. She is dedicated to living life fully, and to making a difference for the many people in Nova Scotia personally experiencing brain injury, or supporting people with brain injuries. The Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Library is located at 405 Main St. in Yarmouth. Thanks for voting! See the original post: Learn more about brain injuries at Yarmouth library … Continue reading →