Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

NEW YORK, April 28, 2014 /Emag.co.uk/ Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue: PharmaPoint: Schizophrenia US Drug Forecast and Market Analysis to 2022 Summary Schizophrenia is a persistent long-term brain disorder that causes severe, debilitating psychotic episodes. Its core symptoms, auditory or visual hallucinations, are often accompanied by fixed, false, and often paranoid beliefs, called delusions. These two features are often combined with learning and cognitive deficits. WHO experts have estimated that roughly 24 million people are affected by schizophrenia worldwide. While the arrival of atypical antipsychotics has greatly expanded pharmacologic treatment options over the past two decades, the current drug market does not treat the negative and cognitive symptoms that are associated with the disease. GlobalData expects that the growing popularity of long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics, along with the arrival of novel treatments that achieve higher efficacy in negative- and cognitive-predominant patients, will serve to stimulate growth in the marketplace over the forecast period. Country-specific treatment recommendations and policy implementation will be an essential metric for determining future mental health services in the 7MM. Mental health is a major focus of the recent healthcare policy in the US. Conditions such as Alzheimers disease … Continue reading →

More than 90 Penn Medicine neurologists and researchers will present over 120 studies and abstracts at the American Academy of Neurologys 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014. Penn Medicine brain experts are available to speak with media about a wide range of neurological disease throughout the meeting, taking place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Please contact Kim Menard at Kim.Menard@uphs.upenn.edu or 215-200-2312, and follow @PennMedNews. Editor's note: All media attending the meeting must register with AAN. News Releases Penn Neurologists Report on Promise of Statins, Estrogen and Telemedicine as Potential Targets and Interventions for Parkinson's Disease Announcements Penn Medicine Neurologists to Receive Honors at American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting Events On Saturday, dozens of Penn Medicine doctors, nurses and social workers will be interacting with thousands of patients, families, caregivers and members of the public attending the American Brain Foundation's 2014 Brain Health Fair. Faculty members from Penn Neurology and Neurosurgery will present educational sessions with research and treatment updates on topics ranging from multiple sclerosis to traumatic brain injury. Social workers from the Penn Memory Center and Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center are leading support groups for patients and caregivers. … Continue reading →

By Maureen Salamon HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, April 23, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that people with more education recover significantly better from serious head injuries. Scientists from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that adults with moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries who had earned at least an undergraduate degree were more than seven times as likely to completely recover from their injury than those who didn't finish high school. The research focused on how "cognitive reserve" -- the brain's ability to maintain function despite damage -- affects recovery from traumatic brain injury. The results echo previous research in Alzheimer's dementia suggesting that more years of education, believed to lead to more effective brain use and greater cognitive reserve, slows progression of symptoms. "I'm not sure we can quite say you should stay in school based on this study alone. But if one looks at the dementia literature, maintaining the health of your brain by being actively involved in your life is important," said study author Eric Schneider, an epidemiologist and assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "And in the unlikely event of injury to your brain, it may help," he added. … Continue reading →

Between 10 and 20 percent of all cases of epilepsy result from severe head injury, but a new drug promises to prevent post-traumatic seizures and may forestall further brain damage caused by seizures in those who already have epilepsy. A team of researchers from UC Berkeley, Ben-Gurion University in Israel and Charit-University Medicine in Germany reports in the current issue of the journal Annals of Neurology that a commonly used hypertension drug prevents a majority of cases of post-traumatic epilepsy in a rodent model of the disease. If independent experiments now underway in rats confirm this finding, human clinical trials could start within a few years. This is the first-ever approach in which epilepsy development is stopped, as opposed to common drugs that try to prevent seizures once epilepsy develops, said coauthor Daniela Kaufer, UC Berkeley associate professor of integrative biology and a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. Those drugs have a very limited success and many side effects, so we are excited about the new approach. The team, led by Kaufer; neurosurgeon Alon Friedman, associate professor of physiology and neurobiology at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; and Uwe Heinemann of the Charite, provides the first explanation … Continue reading →

By Estel Grace Masangkay Lpath, an antibody-platform company focusing on bioactive lipid-targeted therapeutics, and scientists from the Center for Military Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) announced the start of a collaborative research agreement study for brain injury drug Lpathomab. Lpathomab is an antibody to lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) intended for the treatment of brain injury resulting from blast overpressure. The drug works as a sponge which soaks up LPA, a molecule known to damage neurons and promote inflammatory responses in the central nervous system. Recent research published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation shows that Lpathomab is able to reverse most of the damage caused by trauma to the nervous system in a controlled cortical-impact model of TBI in mice models. Lpath is at present conducting studies for Lpathomab intended as a basis for IND applications. The company said it plans to enter Phase I clinical trials in early 2015 for neuropathic pain and neurotrauma. Incidence of blast traumatic brain injury (TBI) has increased in recent wars due to the use of improvised explosive devices and hand-held grenades. TBI is a leading cause of disability among service members. Prevalence of concussions in soldiers returning from recent wars … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise Philadelphia, Pa. (April 25, 2014) The development of graphenea highly advanced metamaterial with many unique and varied propertiesmay lead to exciting new applications in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases, according to a report in the May issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Tobias A. Mattei, MD, of Invision Health/Brain & Spine Center Buffalo, New York and Azeem A. Rehman, BS, of The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria present a "primer" on the development of graphene-based metamaterials that may lead to new advances in several areas of neurosurgery. Mattei and Rehman write, "As a surgical specialty that heavily relies on technological innovations, it is expected that neurosurgery will significantly benefit from several graphene-based technological developments in the next decades." Graphene Has 'Extremely Remarkable' Properties An artificially engineered "metamaterial"with properties not typically found in naturegraphene is composed of a single layer of carbon atoms in a "honeycomb lattice" pattern. The developers of graphene were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010; massive resources are being invested in its … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 23-Apr-2014 Contact: Stephanie Desmon sdesmon1@jhmi.edu 410-955-8665 Johns Hopkins Medicine Better-educated people appear to be significantly more likely to recover from a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), suggesting that a brain's "cognitive reserve" may play a role in helping people get back to their previous lives, new Johns Hopkins research shows. The researchers, reporting in the journal Neurology, found that those with the equivalent of at least a college education are seven times more likely than those who didn't finish high school to be disability-free one year after a TBI serious enough to warrant inpatient time in a hospital and rehabilitation facility. The findings, while new among TBI investigators, mirror those in Alzheimer's disease research, in which higher educational attainment believed to be an indicator of a more active, or more effective, use of the brain's "muscles" and therefore its cognitive reserve has been linked to slower progression of dementia. "After this type of brain injury, some patients experience lifelong disability, while others with very similar damage achieve a full recovery," says study leader Eric B. Schneider, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Center for Surgical Trials and Outcomes Research. "Our … Continue reading →

BERKELEY Between 10 and 20 percent of all cases of epilepsy result from severe head injury, but a new drug promises to prevent post-traumatic seizures and may forestall further brain damage caused by seizures in those who already have epilepsy. A team of researchers from UC Berkeley, Ben-Gurion University in Israel and Charit-University Medicine in Germany reports in the current issue of the journal Annals of Neurology that a commonly used hypertension drug prevents a majority of cases of post-traumatic epilepsy in a rodent model of the disease. If independent experiments now underway in rats confirm this finding, human clinical trials could start within a few years. When the blood-brain barrier is disrupted by a severe head injury, the blood protein albumin leaks into the brain and activates the TGF-beta receptor on astrocytes (tan cells), which triggers a cascade of events leading to inflammation. The net result can be hyperexcitable neurons (yellow) and epileptic seizures. Kaufer, Friedman and colleagues discovered this cause and effect and identified a drug that blocks the TGF-beta receptor, preventing seizures in rats. (Image by Greg Chin, Vlad Senatorov & Oscar Vasquez, UC Berkeley) This is the first-ever approach in which epilepsy development is stopped, as … Continue reading →

Repeated blows to the head common in sports or combat cause structural damage to the brain that fails to clear up even after a rest period of six months, according to a small study that looked at college football players. The research adds to evidence from other findings suggesting that treatment procedures - pulling football players off the playing field or soldiers from combat for a week or two to allow time for a concussion to heal - may not be enough to provide full recovery. "The concern is that a subsequent season will lead to cumulative brain injury," says Jeffrey Bazarian, lead author and an associate professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. "The concern is that it just adds up." The findings were published last week in the online medical research site Plos One. Bazarian cautioned that it remains unclear whether long-term illnesses, such as the early onset of dementia, are linked to cumulative damage caused by head hits. The study at the University of Rochester of 10 members of its football team found that each suffered from 431 to 1,850 head hits in the course of a single season. The hits were tabulated … Continue reading →

Two years ago, Oklahoma National Guard Capt. Matt Smothermon spent months trying to write a single page that would get him back into law school. The page sat unfinished on his kitchen table for months, he said. The trouble was, the thing he was trying to explain on that page was the thing keeping him from writing it. I couldnt write it, he said. I sat down and tried to write it over and over and over and over, and I couldnt do it. Smothermon credits an experimental treatment for his recovery a treatment that Oklahoma lawmakers are seeking to make available, for free, to any veteran who needs it. But some researchers question the treatment, saying its ineffective at best and potentially dangerous at worst. Proponents tout the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy as a major breakthrough in the treatment of traumatic brain injury. But the therapy, commonly used to treat divers with decompression sickness, hasnt received FDA approval for the treatment of brain injury. Worse, the FDA warns that patients receiving the therapy are at risk of serious injuries. Bombs take toll Smothermon was a platoon leader on a route clearance team in the Oklahoma National Guards 45th … Continue reading →