Archive for February, 2009
Let’s work together to prevent brain injuries!
It’s that time again. National Brain Injury Awareness Month starts March 1st, and this year’s focus is on sports and concussions with an emphasis on youth sports. The importance of bringing attention to traumatic brain injuries (TBI) can’t be stressed enough, as public awareness is what spurs the creation of services, the financing of medical studies, and the acceptance and application of preventative measures.
We’d like to share some updated information on the Christopher & Dana Reeve Paralysis Act with you:
“Your voice can help take the Christopher & Dana Reeve Paralysis Act across the finish line. Last month, the CDRPA was inserted into a large bill containing many environmental bills, called the Omnibus Public Land Management Act (S.22). The vast majority of these bills have little to no opposition, strong local supporters and broad, bi-partisan support in Congress, just like the CDRPA. They were packaged together because most of them were blocked by Senatorial holds.
“How do we stop physically disabled people from feeling suicidal in the first place?”
This poignant quote comes from a New Statesman column regarding Daniel James’ decision to end his life rather than live it as a tetraplegic. The writer, Victoria Brignell, also a tetraplegic, has an excellent point – the focus shouldn’t be on the ethics behind assisted suicide, but on addressing the the mental and emotional factors that create the urge in the first place.
Virginia Commonwealth University’s Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Center is studying a new therapy that is designed to help patients and their families cope with the acute phase of their recovery from a traumatic brain injury.
The First Steps Acute Neurobehavioral and Cognitive Intervention (FANCI) program is funded by a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health-NICHHD, and is a randomized controlled trial. Janet Niemeier, Ph.D. and William Walker, M.D. are hoping that this study will show FANCI’s ability to address post-injury challenges such as dealing with impaired cognitive function, community re-entry, and family acceptance and understanding.
A recent study is linking mental and physical deterioration in later years to a concussion. Canadian researchers from Montreal University focused on ice hockey players for this test, determining that the repercussions of a concussion are felt as late as 30 years after the initial trauma. A similar study that used soccer players as its subjects determined parallel results, backing up the need for those engaging in sports to wear helmets.
In February’s issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health addressed the occurrence, or lack of, exercise prescriptions. Of the 700 participants in the sample, less than 50 percent had been encouraged or told to use exercise as part of their recovery plan.
As many of you already know from personal experience, chronic pain is a very real and highly prevalent result of spinal cord injuries. Finding ways to deal with it when a cure is lacking can be both frustrating and time consuming. According to Kazuko L. Shem, M.D. with Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Center, 65-95 percent of spinal cord injury patients experience pain with up to 45 percent classifying it as “sever disabling pain”.
Thank you everyone for your readership! We have been going through some personnel changes as well as updating our Website. While we make the final conversion to Drupal, we will be bringing our blog up to date and keeping you informed of all the new stories, tips, trends and breakthroughs in spinal cord and brain injury research and news. Please submit any comments, questions or suggestions and we will address them in future posts.
Thank you for your patience while we update!
Rich Newsome
