by Ken Breaux
Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center

3/2/2010 - LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, has been labeled a "signature injury" of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. . It also occurs in non-combat settings in association with motor vehicle accidents, sports injuries, assaults and falls. In 2009, Department of Defense officials reported 20,199 cases of TBI among military service members.

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month and representatives at Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center locations will be hosting various activities promoting the Brain Injury Association of America's current campaign, "A concussion is a brain injury. Get the facts."

Christopher Giza, MD, Gerard A. Gioia, PhD
Sarah Jane Brain Foundation Steering Committee

Introduction

Concussions are one of the most commonly reported injuries in children and adolescents who participate in sports and recreational activities. A concussion is caused by a blow or motion to the head or body that causes the brain to move rapidly inside the skull, resulting in neurobiological dysfunction.  This dysfunction commonly includes altered mental status, physical symptoms (such as headache, fatigue and dizziness), cognitive problems (such as memory disturbance and slowed thinking), emotional changes (such as irritability or sadness) and difficulties with sleep. Concussions can occur in any organized or unorganized sport or recreational activity and can result from a fall or from players colliding with each other, the ground, or with obstacles. Concussions occur with or without loss of consciousness, but the vast majority occur without loss of consciousness. The risk of catastrophic injuries or death increases when a concussion is not properly evaluated and managed. Continuing to play with a concussion leaves the young athlete potentially vulnerable to greater injury, longer recovery times, long-term functional deficits, or even death.

by Urvaksh Karkaria - January 22, 2010

Atlanta Business Chronicle

An Emory University researcher has developed what could be the first drug therapy to treat traumatic brain injury — a condition that affects more people than breast cancer, prostate cancer and HIV combined.

Grady Memorial Hospital is leading a national clinical trial to test the effectiveness of the therapy, which aims to use the hormone progesterone to halt the negative chain of events triggered in the brain following a traumatic head injury.

If the trial is successful, this “could end up being the standard of care for traumatic brain injuries,” said Dr. Darryl Kaelin, medical director of the acquired brain injury program at Shepherd Center.