Posts Tagged ‘tbi recovery’
Recent advances in the treatment and therapy for traumatic brain injury (TBI) hold promising results for the 1.4 million in the U.S. with TBIs. Researchers hope to make cognitive therapy more available to patients who have suffered brain injuries from car and playground accidents, domestic violence, war injuries, and even simple falls.
Much of the current research is based on recent studies which have shown that the brain has an immense capability to repair itself after an injury. Many of the innovations in cognitive therapy seek to assist the brain in repairing itself, as opposed to simply treating symptoms. One doctor, according to a MSN Health and Fitness article, has reported that over 70% of his most severely injured patients have regained much of their independent functioning over time.
While cognitive therapy still attempts to retrain patients in basic functions such as reading and writing, therapists and doctors also apply custom designed therapy strategies focused on the needs and aspirations of each individual patient. Doctors have also recognized the importance of including emotional rehabilitation as part of their treatment strategy. Patients derive great benefit and peace of mind by adopting emotional coping tools to keep functioning through difficulties and confusion inherent in many TBI cases.
Since the brain maintains an ability to repair and rewire itself throughout the entire human lifespan, new cognitive therapy approaches lend hope to 55 and older TBI patients as well. While the brain manages its own healing processes, scientists seek to assist it in rebuilding new pathways by teaching patients how to think through tasks.
Many health insurance plans do not cover cognitive therapy, but scientists, doctors, and researchers are busy gathering data in support of its vast potential for rehabilitation after TBI. They hope to establish cognitive therapy as a proven, widely available, and accepted part of recovery strategies, with research in MRI, brain mapping, and analysis of patient recoveries.
Anyone who experiences a traumatic brain or spinal cord injury is aware of how significantly his or her life can change within a matter of seconds. The two populations most at risk to sustain brain or spinal cord injuries are drivers and athletes. By being aware of certain information, both these groups can minimize their risk for brain and spinal cord injuries…
This week’s technology report isn’t on something you can use – yet. ScienceDaily reports that a team at the University of Reading has created a robot that is controlled by an actual biological brain. This has a great deal of potential applications as it continues to develop and become more complex…
Science Daily has released an article regarding a study on brain plasticity from neuroscientists at Children’s Hospital Boston that has the potential to help patients heal from a brain injury.
Otx2, a protein that is manufactured in the retina, has been found to initiate a state of “heightened brain plasticity” in mice. This state of plasticity allows the brain to make new neural connections, leading to an increased ability to learn new things…
The enzyme chondroitinase seems to have a beneficial effect on nerve damage. Plasticity, which allows the brain to make new connections after old ones are damaged, is crucial for recovery after a brain or spine injury, and scar tissue can interfere with this process…
Concussions, it would seem, are not gender neutral.
A study released from the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center found that a patient’s recovery from a concussion varies greatly between men and women, with women recovering slower. A concussion, caused by a blow to the head through sports, car accidents, etc., affects various cognitive functions from memory to speech…
According to a report by clinical scientists from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, traumatic brain injury patients should be given nutritional supplements as soon as possible following the injury.
The recommended intake is through a gastric feeding tube, and if done timely enough, can increase a TBI patient’s chance of survival four-fold. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that optimal nutrition will improve your health and chances of healing, but this study from the Journal of Neurosurgery found that the nutritional supplementation recommended for the first week of recovery isn’t enough.
For optimal benefits, supplements need to be taken as soon as it is medically possible. The best outcome for TBI patients came from a minimum of 25kcal/kg each day, an amount that provides the body with what it needs to properly repair the complex damage in the brain.
Doctor Paul Harch has been studying the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on more than 500 patients with brain injuries. He claims to that the high doses of oxygen stimulates the brain’s ability to repair itself.
Examples of those this therapy has helped include a Florida judge who says he experienced improved cognition, word finding and balance – all areas that were damaged when he suffered a traumatic brain injury in Afghanistan.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been used for Autism, decompression sickness in deep sea divers, gas embolism, CO poison, smoke inhalation, migrains, burns and a variety of other medical conditions. It increases neuronal energy metabolism in the brain, wakes up sleeping brain cells, enhances the immune system, reduces tissue swelling and deactivates toxins among other benefits.
As more studies are done and applications documented regarding oxygen therapy’s application to TBI, hopefully there will be an increase in patients with improved functioning.
