Superior Court Judge Helen Toor cant say whether shes seeing more defendants entering her Middlebury courtroom with a traumatic brain injury or if shes just noticing them more. She can say, however, that if the accused is found incompetent to stand trial because of a TBI, theres not a lot she can do with them. The state is required to dismiss the charges under our laws, says Toor, whos been a judge for 14 years and now presides over Addison Countys criminal division. And yet, we dont have a process for monitoring that person to try to avoid future criminal conduct. In the last few months, Toor has had to dismiss charges against defendants accused of aggravated assault and repeated stalking because they had TBIs that might explain their inappropriate or violent behavior. In a third case, Toor has yet to rule on the competence of a brain-injured defendant charged with the sexual assault of a child. This situation differs from other cases involving defendants deemed by the court to lack a rational understanding of the charges, proceedings and their potential consequences. If a defendant has a severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, a judge may commit that individual to … Continue reading →

March 20, 2013, 3 a.m. Concussion campaigner Peter Jess has urged sports doctors to shift their attention to the treatment of long-term brain injuries, declaring it is nonsense to suggest there is no link between concussion and post-career problems. Jess, a prominent AFL player manager who has invested considerable time and money on the issue, dismissed claims by leading doctors that it was too early to link concussion with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease. Doctor Ryan Kohler, who will attend the Concussion in Football Conference, beginning on Wednesday at Etihad Stadium, was the latest to do so. ''Whilst I applaud the AFL's initiative in holding the concussion conference, I'm concerned about the thought process of Dr Ryan Kohler, and the comments attributed to him in Fairfax Media,'' Jess said. ''Concussion in the 1980s and '90s is a concussion that cannot reasonably be distinguished from a concussion today. ''If anything, concussions are more likely to occur due to the speed of the game and the body size of players today compared with the '80s and '90s. ''To say that there is no casual relationship between concussions and long-term impairment is counter to the available research today. ''In fact, … Continue reading →

Posted: Mar 19, 2013 5:51 PM by Victoria Fregoso-Q2 News Updated: Mar 19, 2013 6:42 PM BILLINGS - Playing the piano comes fairly easy to Ian Elliot. Being a traumatic brain injury survivor himself, Elliot considers himself lucky. Since his car wreck in 1994, he noticed a shift in the attention brain injuries receive, especially for student athletes. "I'm seeing a wave of focus, of improvement," Elliot said. This improvement includes Senate Bill 112 which would require youth athletes suspected of having a concussion be taken off the field and receive medical attention before getting back in the game. "I think it's a long time coming, trying to get health care providers and coaches and parents to treat concussions seriously," said Timothy Sanders with the Billings Clinic Concussion Treatment Program. Five years ago Billings Clinic teamed up with Billings School District 2 along with other teams in the area to monitor student athlete concussions. "Most of what the school district does now is what is being required by the new law. So, if the law passes, which I hope it does, I don't see much changing in school district 2 because we're way ahead of the game right now," Sanders … Continue reading →

EMERYVILLE, Calif., March 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/--Adamas Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will present research results today from its NurelinTM (amantadine HCl extended release capsules) program demonstrating the benefit of amantadine in traumatic brain injury (TBI) at the 65th American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting being held in San Diego, CA. Nurelin, a once-daily extended release formulation of amantadine intended for nighttime administration, is being evaluated in a Phase 2/3 clinical study for the treatment of levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Adamas is currently investigating the activity of amantadine in preclinical models for other central nervous system (CNS) disorders, and anticipates identifying up to two additional indications for development. "The results presented today are the first from several research studies demonstrating additional therapeutic applications for Nurelin beyond our initial indication for the treatment of LID in Parkinson's disease," said Gregory T. Went, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Adamas. "Our data presented at AAN data show a statistically significant dose response for amantadine in the improvements in cognition in a murine model of moderate traumatic injury. A significant reduction in neuronal cell death was also observed. This is the first time this preclinical model has been validated with a drug that … Continue reading →

March 21, 2013 Orlando Cruz of Puerto Rico fights Aalan Martinez of Mexico in the fifth round of a sixth-round knockout at the Kissimmee Civic Center in Kissimmee, Florida March 15, 2013. Reuters picLONDON, March 21 When Irelands Katie Taylor was taking hits and striking blows for boxings Olympic debut in an east London ring last year, John Hardy did not want to look. To this leading neuroscientist and molecular biologist, a boxing bout is little more than a session of mutual brain injury. He was horrified to see women boxing at Olympic level for the first time at the London 2012 Games. We shouldnt get our fun out of watching people inflict brain damage on each other, said Hardy, who is chair of Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease at University College Londons Institute of Neurology. To me as a neuroscientist its almost surreal. Hardy, whose research work focuses on Alzheimers and other types of dementia, said having women in an Olympic boxing ring was a terrible thing not because he thinks women should not compete alongside men in sport, but because women boxing simply meant more people inflicting more damage on more brains. That, in turn, was highly likely … Continue reading →

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - When Ireland's Katie Taylor was taking hits and striking blows for boxing's Olympic debut in an east London ring last year, John Hardy did not want to look. To this leading neuroscientist and molecular biologist, a boxing bout is little more than a session of mutual brain injury. He was horrified to see women boxing at Olympic level for the first time at the London 2012 Games. "We shouldn't get our fun out of watching people inflict brain damage on each other," said Hardy, who is chair of Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease at University College London's Institute of Neurology. "To me as a neuroscientist it's almost surreal." Hardy, whose research work focuses on Alzheimer's and other types of dementia, said having women in an Olympic boxing ring was "a terrible thing" - not because he thinks women should not compete alongside men in sport, but because women boxing simply meant more people inflicting more damage on more brains. That, in turn, was highly likely to mean more people suffering the devastating, incurable symptoms of brain diseases such as Alzheimer's. Advances in modern neuroscience mean scientists know more than ever … Continue reading →