In this newsletter: Opportunities, Education, Sports, Cannabis, Diagnostics, Therapies Under Research, Veterans & Service Members, Mental Health, Statistics, Youth, Women’s Health, and Culture.

The lead article, NFL awards $500,000 for Canadian university to study cannabis as a concussion treatment, is in the Cannabis category.

We appreciate the Concussion Alliance Volunteers who created this edition:

Writers: Josh Wu, Ming Shen, Claire Holmes, Will Altaweel, Sam Kanny, Aamy Woldesenbet, Conor Gormally & Malayka Gormally

Editors: Conor Gormally and Malayka Gormally

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Opportunities

February 17, 1 pm PST: free class on Fatigue and Brain Injury, facilitated by Clinical Neuropsychologist Nickolas Dasher, Ph.D. and hosted by the BIAWA. Register in advance.

February 23, 11 am PST: a free class on Getting organized: strategies for those with brain injury, hosted by the BIAWA. Register in advance.

Friday, April 29, 6-8 pm EST: free, in-person (Toronto), Concussion Annual Public Forum: Concussions in the Home and Workplace, including Falls and Interpersonal Violence: Prevention and Treatment. Register in advance.

Recruiting for youth study participants: Researchers at the University of Buffalo Brain Function and Recovery Lab are looking for youth aged 8-17 who have “a concussion or suffered a broken arm, wrist or finger within the past year.”

Survey: help influence priorities for future concussion research. The Concussion Priority Setting Partnership is asking people to take a survey to help identify research priorities. The survey takes 10-15 minutes to complete.

Education

Excellent breakdown of post-traumatic headache

See our blog post to read this synopsis.

Sports

Study looks at concussion nondisclosure in college athletes from health disparities and social health determinants framework

Please see our blog post to read this synopsis.

Cannabis

NFL awards $500,000 for Canadian university to study cannabis as a concussion treatment

See our blog post to read this synopsis.

Diagnostics

University of Buffalo researchers find thirty-second single-leg stand task differentiates concussion patients from never-concussed controls

Please see our blog post to read this synopsis.

Therapies Under Research

Our interview with former football player RJ: light therapy for potential CTE

Concussion Alliance recently published a blog post of an interview with RJ, a former college football star who developed CTE-like symptoms years after his career ended. Looking for answers, PJ enrolled in a photobiomodulation (PBM) light therapy clinical trial run by The University of Utah TBI and Concussion Center, Department of Neurology School of Medicine.

In his interview, he explains how the light therapy treatment he received in the trial changed the trajectory of his life, reducing or eliminating the majority of cognitive, emotional, and psychological symptoms that had been only getting worse beforehand.

Our blog post includes a transcript of the interview, the video of the interview, and links to more information about ongoing PBM research and ways to access this therapy.

Veterans & Service Members

Clinical trial recruiting for veterans: two treatments that may improve sleep and sleep-related outcomes

The Portland VA is recruiting veterans for a remote clinical trial assessing the effectiveness of two types of treatments for sleep. For this study, you will spend 60 minutes every morning next to a lightbox or negative ion generator for up to 4 weeks. Participants can be veterans with or without a history of head injury. Compensation will be up to $180 in gift cards (Amazon or Fred Meyer) for completing the study. There is additional information and a link to the prescreening form on our blog post, or leave a voicemail at (503) 468-6002 with your name and phone number.

Clinical trial: CBT-i App for veterans and active-duty military members with insomnia

Military service members and veterans sometimes struggle with insomnia after coming home. Luckily, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a common treatment that can help. But in-person sessions aren’t always feasible, especially now with COVID-19 restrictions. The Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine is testing a CBT-i (Internet Guided CBT) app that was made specifically for military personnel with a history of head injury. This online study is open for enrollment and needs volunteers. Interested? Contact the researchers at cnrm-ecbti@usuhs.edu or call/text 301-456-5474. For more information, see our blog post about this study.