Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries"

This study aims to compare different types of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) that may alleviate depressive symptoms in United States Military Service Members with a history of concussion.

This is a four-site, randomized, parallel design, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 10-week trial of donepezil 10 mg daily for verbal memory problems among adults with TBI in the subacute or chronic recovery period. The study will recruit 160 persons with TBI and functionally important memory problems during a four-year period of open recruitment. The study aims are: To evaluate the effects of treatment with donepezil on verbal memory as assessed by the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised Total Trial 1-3; To evaluate the effects of treatment with donepezil on memory-related activities as measured by the Everyday Memory Questionnaire; To evaluate the effects of donepezil on attention, processing speed, neuropsychiatric symptoms, community participation, quality of life, and caregiver experiences.

Patients with a history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or post acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) and abnormal growth hormone secretion, as measured by glucagon stimulation test, will be treated with replacement growth hormone therapy for a period of 6 months (mTBI) or 9 months (PASC). Testing of cognition, exercise, fatigue, brain activation and morphology, body composition and measurements of quality of life will be performed before and after the treatment period. Fecal sampling for characterization of the GI microbiome will occur monthly over the treatment period. Control subjects will be enrolled and will provide fecal samples monthly for 6 months. GI microbiomes will be compared between mTBI patients, PASC patients and controls at baseline as well as over the treatment period.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of brain training in a Virtual Reality set up in neurotypical populations as well as in the traumatic brain injury population.

Mayo Clinic's Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Model System Center (TBIMSC) will capitalize on longstanding collaborations with the non-profit Minnesota Brain Injury Alliance (MN BIA) and Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to test a new way of delivering medical and social services. This trial will address chronic unmet needs expressed by individuals with TBI and their families in the U.S. pertaining to the ineffective connection to specialized medical and community resources in the transition from hospital to community-based care, limited access to TBI experts, and lack of primary care provider (PCP) knowledge about the complex needs of individuals with TBI. Target populations for this study are: 1) individuals with TBI eligible for MN BIA provided Resource Facilitation (RF), 2) their families, and 3) their PCPs. This clinical trial will use a theory-driven complex behavioral intervention that integrates the medical-rehabilitation, therapy, and TBI expertise of Mayo's Brain Rehabilitation Clinic (BRC) with MN BIA's highly developed RF program (a free two-year telephone support service offering assistance in navigating life after brain injury). Mayo Clinic's medical-rehabilitation expertise will be integrated with RF services to deliver direct clinical care remotely using telemedicine and other information and communication technology to test whether outcomes over time are better in a group receiving this model of care compared to a group that receives usual care in their communities. Costs between usual care and intervention groups will be compared in collaboration with the MDH. The overarching goal is development of a replicable, sustainable, and cost effective model of telemedicine care that integrates TBIMS Centers and BIAs nationwide and builds TBI expertise and capacity among PCPs.

To decrease emotional self-awareness deficits and improve emotional self-regulation, particularly anxiety, anger, depression, and positive affect, through the treatment of alexithymia.

Thousands of Veterans suffer a stroke every year, and these individuals often suffer emotional and cognitive changes that negatively affect their quality of life as well as their ability to recover. In addition to traditional rehabilitation such as physical and occupational therapy, a number of alternative treatments are now being studied for their ability to enhance patients' recovery following stroke. One of these treatments, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction or MBSR, involves an 8-week course that teaches individuals strategies such as breathing techniques, meditation, and movement therapy. The current study proposes to teach MBSR to a group of Veterans with a history of stroke to determine whether this type of intervention has beneficial effects on psychological and cognitive functioning. The investigators hope to find that MBSR is a useful, additional intervention that can improve Veterans' well-being and quality of life as they recover from stroke.

Disorder of consciousness (DoC) is a state in which consciousness is altered because of brain damage and can occur under a variety of conditions: in fact, the most frequent causes of DoC are vascular disease, head trauma, and cerebral hypoxia. DoCs result from the loss of regulation of neural function of the two components of consciousness, alertness and awareness. Depending on the patient's behavior and responsiveness, DoCs can be identified in different states, from coma to persistent vegetative state (VS) to intermittent minimally conscious state (MCS). Regarding the prognosis of recovery, in patients with DoC the chance of having functional improvement decreases with time, although some positive functional changes have been observed in chronic patients. Therapies for DoC include some drugs, such as dopaminergic, GABAergic and amantadine drugs, which work to facilitate the recovery of consciousness. Neurorehabilitation, however, seems to be the most recognized intervention that aims to strengthen, in uninjured brain regions, the spontaneous neuroplasticity that occurs to compensate for lost function. Simultaneous stimulation of multiple senses, such as hearing, sight and smell, provides the neural network with more stimuli that are more effective than a single stimulus. In fact, multisensory stimuli can more easily activate attention because cortical processing is predominantly multimodal. As for content, it would seem that those with autobiographical and emotionally salient character could engage multiple brain networks and have priority access to attention. Numerous trials show that stimulus-containing content led to increased behavioural activity, improving self-awareness in patients with DoC. Considering that a communication system that can combine both visual and auditory channels proves to be more effective than a "single-sense" channel, multisensory stimulation is likely to provide simultaneous activation of different brain areas by enhancing plasticity processes. Furthermore, the intensity of stimulation could be one of the main variables with greater impact on the patient: in fact, higher intensity would correspond to a greater effect on the brain.

Children with acquired brain injury (ABI) often struggle with complex impairments, including cognitive (such as memory and attention), social, emotional and behavioral challenges. There is a lack of evidence-based knowledge about rehabilitation for children with ABI in the chronic phase. The current study, the CICI Study, is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) directed towards children with ABI and their families in the chronic phase. The study will be conducted in close collaboration with schools and local health care providers. The CICI Study focuses on the child's and parents' individually identified target outcome areas and rehabilitation goals. The intervention aims to enhance everyday functioning in the home and school environment by attaining rehabilitation goals in areas noted as challenging by the participants. The efficacy of the CICI-intervention will be measured in terms of goal attainment, burden of brain injury related symptoms, parenting self-efficacy, unmet health care needs, as well as several aspects of child, parent and family functioning.

The purpose of this randomized and placebo-controlled EpoRepair trial is to evaluate the effect of intravenously administered recombinant human erythropoietin (Epo) as compared to placebo in preterm infants with brain damage on neurological development until five years od age.