The brain is a fascinating and complex organ continuously boggling neuroscience’s most brilliant minds. Of many brain phenomena sparking further research worldwide are Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI), which occur when a sudden external jolt, blow or bump causes injury to brain cells or the breaking of blood vessels in the brain.
TBI serves as an umbrella term for all brain injuries and their effects range in severity. Of the 2.8 million TBIs diagnosed in the United States each year, Mild TBI and concussions are the most common. The sudden movement caused by concussions can lead to damaged brain cells or chemical changes in the brain, but patients are typically expected to fully recover in a short time. Moderate to severe TBIs, on the other hand, proves to be a major health problem, leading to over 60 thousand deaths in 2019 in the United States alone.
TBI science continues to evolve, but as of the last few decades, the challenge of creating a definitive diagnostic test for concussions remains unresolved. However, scientists are getting closer than ever before. Modern technology is quickly shifting the current landscape of TBI technology, and in turn, possibly changing how we all think of TBI in general.
How TBI can affect people
Common signs of TBI involve memory loss, headaches, dizziness, nausea, ringing ears, changes in your sense of taste or smell, and becoming easily angry or frustrated. More long-term effects can include sensitivity to light and sound, irritability, continued memory issues, anxiety, and depression.
The distinction between mild, versus moderate or severe TBI, is found in the severity of side effects. Effects from TBI can lead to short or long-term changes in the brain. For example, people with mild TBI may recover at home. However, in moderate and severe cases, TBI is understood to be a major cause of death and disability.
Over 5 million people currently live with TBI-related disabilities in the United States, most of them from falls and car accidents. Other groups most affected by TBIs are athletes and veterans. Those living with long-term effects of moderate or severe TBI face both financial and mental burdens to maintain health and stay abreast of any other new factors that may influence the effects of TBI.
About 30 percent of all people with moderate or severe TBI notice a decline in their overall brain health over 5 years. People who survive moderate or severe TBI have a life expectancy 9 years shorter than people without TBI, even after receiving inpatient rehabilitation services. This is because those with severe TBI are much more susceptible to several severe health risks, including seizures, pneumonia, infection, and drug poisoning.
Innovation helps us evolve
Treatment for mild cases of TBI continues to be minimal, as those who experience mild concussions are typically able to return to normal activities after short periods. As for moderate and severe TBI, treatment continues to evolve. Past treatment for people with TBI includes removing blood clots or pools, repairing skull fractures, or relieving pressure inside the skull, also known as intracranial pressure or ICP. Severe TBI patients may also take medication and undergo rehabilitation therapies to help improve memory, perception, physical strength, daily tasks, and more.
New research, though, seems to be going in an exciting new direction.
As athletes are some of the most affected groups when it comes to TBIs, sports science has been at the helm of many discoveries in the field. In 2013, GE joined the NFL to launch the Head Health Initiative, a program meant to lead to better infrastructure and protocols surrounding TBI risks for NFL players. The initiative provided grants for medical research into better TBI diagnostic tests and brain imaging that can better make distinctions between mild, moderate, and severe TBI.
The Chronic Effects of NeuroTrauma Consortium (CENC) are using a five-year grant to delve deeper into the long-term effects of TBI by studying Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Their focus for new treatments based on their research is for the roughly 10 percent of individuals of which current treatments do not work. Much progress is being made, including a microchip that receives signals from neurons to improve motor function and even control robotic limbs.
Further innovations are closer than ever to learning more accurate ways to communicate with coma patients; a feat scientists have long tried to determine. The error rate for detecting consciousness in coma patients is currently 30 to 40 percent.
Possibly the most fascinating of new research on the horizon comes from The Association of American Medical Colleges. The AAMC reports positive results from a new injection that potential TBI victims might receive the moment they enter the emergency room. Still in the early testing stage, the injection would work to immediately reduce brain damage to pre-TBI levels. If successful, this medical creation would dramatically change how we think and talk about TBIs.
What seems to be consistent for scientists working to change TBI treatments is a direct inclusion of people with TBI in the conversation and a deliberate effort to learn from an array of groups most experiencing TBIs. As Joseph Giacino, Ph.D., Director of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, expressed,
“Brain injury is a chronic health condition, and it needs to be managed that way.”
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute further explains this point with their initiative called the Coalition for Recovery and Innovation in Traumatic Brain Injury Care Across the Lifespan (CRITICAL). Patient-centered research with the goal of truly understanding every individual as much as possible seems to lead scientists into the most significant discoveries.
People with TBI-related disabilities often experience lifelong effects on their health, but with patient-centered research and continued consideration of each patient as an individual, the future looks bright for TBI science and innovation.
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