In this newsletter: Opportunities, Education, Diagnostics, Self-Care, Therapies Currently Available, Veterans & Service Members, Mental Health, Youth, Women’s Health, and Culture.

The lead article this week, Major scandal forces international consensus chair to step down from post ahead of 6th consensus statement process in October, is in the Culture category.

We appreciate the Concussion Alliance Volunteers who created this edition:

Writers: Lori Mae Yvette Calibuso Acob, Chelsea Ryan, Sam Kanny, Minhong Kim, Conor Gormally & Malayka Gormally

Editors: Conor Gormally and Malayka Gormally

Do you find the Concussion Update helpful? If so, forward this to a friend and suggest they subscribe.

Opportunities

Wednesday, March 23, 5 pm PST: free class on Brain Anatomy and Brain Injury, facilitated by Robert Burke, DPT, Physical Therapist. Presented by the Brain Injury Alliance of WA State. Register here.

Tuesday, March 29, 6 pm EST: free webinar, Management of Insurance Issues with Dr. Carmela Tartaglia and Insurance Company Represenatitve; produced by the Canadian Concussion Centre. Sign up here.

Wednesday, March 30, 11 am PST: Resolving Inner Conflict: Move from Self-Doubt to Self-Acceptance. Presented by the Brain Injury Alliance of WA State. Register here.

Thursday, April 7, 4 pm EST: free webinar with speaker Robert A. Stern, PhD, CTE and the Long-Term Consequences of Sport-Related Repetitive Head Impact Exposure: What We Know and What We Need to Know Next. Presented by the University of Michigan Concussion Center. Register here.

Tuesday, April 12, 6 pm EST: free webinar, Prevention of Subsequent Concussions with Stephanie Cowle of Parachute Canada and Dr. Firas Al Rawi: produced by the Canadian Concussion Centre. Sign up here.

Education

Concussion education in schools is inconsistent, overly athlete-focused

See our blog post to read this synopsis.

Diagnostics

Baseline evaluations for diagnosing concussion do not improve diagnostic accuracy

See our blog post to read this synopsis.

Eye-tracking company Oculogica announces launch of new portable EyeBOX® device

Oculogica, a neuro-diagnostic company started by (Concussion Alliance Expert Guest Speaker) Dr. Uzma Samadani, has released a new, portable version of its EyeBOX®. According to a press release in Guided Solutions, “The EyeBOX is the First FDA-cleared Objective Test for Concussion.” The new version is battery-operated and can fit in a backpack. Dr. Rosina Samadani, CEO of Oculogica, highlights the potential diagnostic utility of this version, saying, “Concussions happen everywhere and our latest device was designed with that in mind.”

Self-Care

Good resource on Meditation

See our blog post to read this synopsis.

Therapies Currently Available

Tele-rehabilitation feasibility trial finds positive results comparable with in-person rehabilitation studies

See our blog post to read this synopsis.

Veterans & Service Members

Combat-related concussion increases odds of long-term disability in Veterans in a prospective 10-year study

See our blog post to read this synopsis.

Mind Over Matter: A Veteran-driven Roadmap to Research on Traumatic Brain Injury

Mind Over Matter (M.O.M.) provides a platform that gives veterans with a mild TBI (mTBI) and their caregivers an active voice in developing a clear pathway for increasing relevance of TBI Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) and Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) and outcomes that are important to them so they can live their healthiest lives. The input from mTBI and their caregivers will be used to develop a M.O.M. Roadmap for Research on TBI featuring PCOR topics and CER questions that matter most to veterans which will be translated into a publicly accessible resource. Virtual meetings will be taking place for residents in the states of Florida, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas lasting up to one hour and will run monthly through May 2023. As a token of appreciation for participation, the veteran and/or community stakeholder will receive a $10 gift card, a $10 meal card, and a challenge coin.

Contact information:
This project is led by Dr. Cheryl Krause-Parello at ckrausep@health.fau.edu and Dr. Elisa A. Borah at Elisa.Borah@austin.utexas.edu.

If you are interested in participating in the project and would like more information, please contact the Project Manager, S. Juliana Moreno (fau_smoreno@health.fau.edu).

Clinical trial: CBT-i App for veterans and active-duty military members with insomnia (recruiting through March)

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. The study is recruiting through the end of March, 2022. For more information, see our blog post about this study.

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.

Mental Health

Children and adolescents with concussion at 40% higher risk for mental health issues than peers with orthopedic injury

See our blog post to read this synopsis.

Youth

Children with assault-related concussion have worse outcomes and are less-likely to get proper evaluation than those with sport-related concussion

See our blog post to read this synopsis.

Women’s Health

Fantastic NYT article on brain injuries from domestic violence

We highly recommend the terrific New York Times article, The Hidden Epidemic of Brain Injuries From Domestic Violence, by Christa Hillstrom; there is also the option to listen to the article (42 minutes). The article interweaves the stories of intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors with a brief history of the research on IPV and brain injuries, the founding and work of nonprofits advancing assistance for survivors, and the few concussion clinics that treat them. Hillstrom points out that “few connected the experiences of women who endured similar or even higher levels of bodily violence to traumatic brain injuries — not even in the shelters to which they fled.”

Organizations like Ohio Domestic Violence Network and the research initiative SOAR are working to change outcomes for this population. Hillman explains that only a few institutions provide care to this specific population, notably Northside Hospital Duluth Concussion Institute in Georgia and the Barrow Neurological Institute’s Concussion & Brain Injury Center in Arizona.

The sheer scale of the problem is boggling. “Every year, hundreds of concussions occur in the NFL; thousands occur in the military. [Dr. Eve Valera] estimated number of annual brain injuries among survivors of domestic abuse: 1.6 million.” The brain injuries sustained via IPV appear to create more extensive brain damage than traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in another context. Catherine Fortier, one of the authors of a VA research study, said that “The TBIs that occurred in those violent relationships, that occurred in a psychologically traumatic context, showed more pronounced changes than the TBIs that occurred in a regular civilian-type accident, like a sports injury or motor-vehicle accident.”

Note: Harvard professor and researcher Eve Valera, PhD, mentioned in this article, is on the Concussion Alliance Professional Advisory Board.