Traumatic Brain Injury Blog

CMS – the Federal Agency that Administers Medicare and Medicaid – Recognizes Traumatic Brain Injury as a “Chronic Health Condition”

For more than a decade this blog has covered the growing recognition by policy makers and in the peer reviewed literature that traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) of all kinds should not be treated as a static event from which patients gradually recover over time.

In many cases, the TBI is the beginning of a disease process that can cause symptoms that change over time, in some cases getting better instead of worse, and that can impact multiple organ systems.

In 2009 this led a leading advocacy group, the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA), to issue a position paper in favor of recognizing TBIs as a “chronic health condition.” The BIAA has continued to advocate this position. The Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid (the latter in cooperation with states) has now adopted this position as well, recognizing TBI as a chronic health condition effective January, 2025. This will lead to both increased public health resources – to address the lifelong impacts of brain injury – and to enhanced benefits from health insurance plans like Medicare and Medicaid. Read More

Vision and Vestibular Deficits Predict Prolonged Recovery From Concussion

A recent systemic review of the literature, just published in the Journal of Athletic Training, 2024; 59(1): 49-64, concludes that “vestibular and oculomotor screening are prognostic of time to recovery” from concussion.

Positive findings on these assessments “consistently predict longer recovery.” The authors therefore recommend that vestibular and ocular motor screening be part of the standard of care for assessment of concussion patients. Read the full study. Read More

Recent study finds incomplete recovery at 5 years in 53% of mTBI patients

A large TRACK-TBI cohort study published in JAMA Network Open finds incomplete recovery at 5 years in 53% of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) patients, dictating need for longer term rehabilitation.

A multi-center transforming research and clinical knowledge in TBI (TRACK-TBI) cohort study published March 20, 2023 in JAMA Network Open followed 1196 patients at 18 level 1.0 trauma care centers in the US over five years, including patient with mTBI, patients with moderate-severe brain injury (msTBI) and orthopedic controls. It found persistently elevated rates of incomplete functional outcomes in 53% of mild traumatic brain injury patients and 83% of msTBI patients compared to controls, supporting a need for longer term monitoring and rehabilitation.

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Major study finds that a majority of patients seen in the ER with mild TBI do not fully recover within 6 months, highlighting the importance of follow-up care

As highlighted in prior posts in this blog, TBI research increasingly highlights the importance of providing follow-up care to patients discharged from the ER with a diagnosis of TBI. Put simply, patients with follow up care have better outcomes.

In August, 2022 JAMA Network Open (an American Medical Association journal) published the results of a large cohort study following patients discharged from emergency rooms with the mildest form of traumatic brain injury, patients with a Glasgow Coma score of 15 (the best possible score) and negative head CT scans. The study tracked 991 TBI patients meeting these criteria seen in 18 different level 1 trauma centers. (Participants met the American College of Rehabilitation Medicine definition for TBI.) Read More

Resveratrol: Another Promising Research Based Alternative Therapy To Supplement TBI Treatment

One of the most frequent questions I get from TBI clients in my Vermont law practice is: “Are there alternative therapies I can explore to help support my recovery from a traumatic brain injury without risking further harm?” Physicians practicing “integrative oncology” offer a multi-disciplinary approach to patient care for cancer that implements complementary therapies in collaboration with conventional treatment. Although TBI medicine is not as well organized, the peer reviewed TBI literature does support similar evidence-based complementary therapies for the treatment of TBI. Several have been featured in prior posts in this blog, including yoga and other mindfulness based therapies, exercise therapies, dietary therapies (especially foods rich in ‘polyphenols” found in many fruits and vegetables) and promising supplements including melatonin and curcumin (found in tumeric, curcumin reduces the levels of two enzymes in the body that cause inflammation.)

Another supplement receiving increasing attention in the literature is resveratrol, a “phytoalexin” produced by plants such as the red grape in response to various stresses, which promotes disease resistance. Read More

Early Mental Health Intervention Improves TBI Outcomes

Victims of mild traumatic brain injury (“mTBI”) commonly report psychological distress, which is not surprising given the impact the injury can have on every aspect of everyday life including but not limited to balance, vision, sleeping, physical discomfort including headaches, and perhaps most significantly thinking clearly. Patients often report that they are not the same person and fear that person will never return.

We often recommend counseling support, but this has been based more on instinct and anecdotal information than on data. In prior posts we have reported on studies showing that depression is a common sequelae of mTBI that should be treated before it becomes disabling.  Read More

One in Four Children with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Suffer from Post-Concussive Symptoms

Israeli study finds that one in four children with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) suffer from persistent post-concussive symptoms

In a large multi-center retrospective matched cohort study, Israeli scientists recently found that one in four children (25.3%) who have been discharged from the emergency room after a mild head injury suffered from persistent post- concussive symptoms.

Among the chronic symptoms seen in these children were forgetfulness, memory problems, sensitivity to light and noise, ADHD and even psychological problems. Sadly, many of these children had been misdiagnosed as suffering from unrelated ADHD, sleep disorders, depression, etc.  This misdiagnosis, the researchers noted, leads to treatment that is not suited to the problem, thus causing the children prolonged suffering. Read More

Study published by the American Academy of Neurology Finds that Poor Cognitive Outcomes Following Concussion are more Common than Previously Thought

A new study published February 16, 2022 by the American Academy of Neurology in the Journal “Neurology” finds that the frequency of clinically meaningful poor cognitive outcomes one year after a concussion are more common than previously thought.  The results, says study author Raquel Gardner, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, “highlight the need to better understand the mechanisms underlying poor cognitive outcome, even after relatively mild brain injuries, to improve therapy for recovery.” Read More

Defense Department Study Finds that Targeted Treatment Improves Chronic Symptoms Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

A recent Defense Department/University of Pittsburgh study confirms three important points made in prior posts:

1. So called “mild” traumatic brain injury (“mTBI”) can have long-term, disabling consequences (in both civilian and military populations);
2. that this injury is heterogeneous in both presentation and clinical outcome (in other words, every injury is different); and
3. that interventions targeted to the individual presentation of the injury (whether it is predominantly vestibular, cognitive, oculomotor, headache, sleep or mood related, or some combination) can reduce symptoms in otherwise intractable patients.

The message is that ignoring the symptoms and hoping that they will ultimately disappear – the approach often taken in the past – is not wise for either the individual or for society as a whole. Read More

Psychotherapy for PTSD offers a potential “biosignature” for effective treatment

Functional MRI studies suggest that psychotherapy for PTSD improves symptoms by changing the way brain networks communicate with each other, offering a potential “biosignature” for effective treatment

In prior blog posts we have reviewed literature demonstrating that TBI and PTSD may not be separable but may, in fact, be intimately related not just at the level of symptoms and etiology, but also as the level of pathophysiology. Both can impact the interactions between the body’s immune, endocrine and neuromodulatory neurotransmitter systems. Read More