Active clinical trials for "Blast Injuries"

Enhanced Goal Management Training (GMT) is a 10-week group or individual therapy that teaches strategies to improve an individual's ability to complete everyday tasks. This research study will test the effect of GMT on 36 OEF/OIF Veterans compared to a control group of 16 OEF/OIF Veterans receiving a Brain Health Workshop. The results will provide information to conduct future research with a larger group of patients or to identify which patients demonstrate more benefit from the training.

This study investigates the efficacy of a novel neurorehabilitation program combining noninvasive brain stimulation (transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS) and cognitive therapy, on cognitive function and quality of life in individuals with blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI).

The goal of this study was to train OIF/OIF Veterans with multiple injuries to be Peer Visitors, i.e., Volunteers who visit more recently OIF/OEF Veterans and provide support. We evaluated the effectiveness of the training, and any benefits that Volunteer Peer Visitors and the Recipients of Peer Visitors experienced as a result of participating in Peer Visitation.

This is a pilot study to identify biomarkers that individually, and in combination, demonstrate the greatest sensitivity to repetitive, low-level blast exposure (RLLBE) neurotrauma in Special Operations Forces (SOF) personnel. The proposed cross-sectional, multimodal study will elucidate the potential effects of long-term RLLBE by comparing biomarkers across subjects.

The main purpose of this study is to determine whether functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), can distinguish between service members with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI), as well as those with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who receive either virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) or PTSD treatment other than exposure therapy. The investigators and other investigators have previously identified changes in function in multiple regions of the brain in combat veterans with PTSD, and the investigators have also seen that structural changes in the white matter associated with combat TBI are also linked with changes in function, and in turn with PTSD symptoms. However, the investigators need to confirm these findings in larger numbers, and also need to discern whether fMRI can distinguish if there is something significantly different about those who have PTSD after TBI vs. those in whom it does not follow a TBI. Finally, the investigators have previously demonstrated that exposure therapy ameliorates the functional changes in the brain induced by PTSD, but the investigators do not know if similar changes occur with other forms of therapy, so the investigators seek to compare the two directly. It is our expectation that the findings will better inform the choice of therapy for service members with combat-related PTSD, with or without TBI.

The goal of this study is to examine things that make it easy or hard for OEF/OIF veterans with polytrauma to live independently or do things "on their own" at home and in the community.

A retrospective morbidity and mortality study, using routinely collected data, investigating the epidemiology of patients with conflict-related injuries presenting to a dedicated trauma hospital in Erbil, Iraq, during the campaign to liberate Mosul from ISIS.

The current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have resulted in unprecedented rates of exposure to high-intensity blasts and resulting brain injury. This research team has established that recently blast-exposed Soldiers show differences from controls on tests of central auditory function. This project will 1) develop a more accurate estimate of the prevalence of central auditory dysfunction among Veterans exposed to blasts over the past ten years, 2) identify the functional outcomes associated with abnormal performance on tests of central processing, and 3) improve understanding of the ways in which blast-exposure resembles and differs from both the normal aging process and non-blast-related TBI in terms of performance on tests of central auditory processing.

The purpose of this study is to assess visual quality of patients with non-penetrating, non-metallic, stable corneal foreign bodies. Visual quality will be assessed by examining visual acuity, wavefront analysis and contrast sensitivity. Drawings, photographs, and confocal microscopy will be used to document clinical examination of the cornea at baseline and on follow-up examinations.

Brain injury from explosive blast is a prominent feature of contemporary combat. Although protective armor and effective acute medical intervention allows soldiers to survive blast events, a growing number of veterans will have disability stemming from blast-related neural damage. Soldiers also return from combat with psychological disabilities caused by traumatic war events. The clinical presentation of individuals with blast-related neural damage and post-traumatic psychopathology are markedly similar and thus a clear description of the direct consequences of explosive blast is complicated by the emotional and cognitive sequelae of psychological trauma. We will use sophisticated measures of neural function and structure to characterize brain injury from explosive blasts in a sample of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) National Guard soldiers who returned from deployment in the fall of 2007. Survey data gathered near the end of deployment indicated that over 50% of the brigade had been exposed to direct physical effects of explosive blasts. To fully characterize the effects of blast on the brain and differentiate them from post-traumatic stress disorder, we will contrast groups of soldiers exposed to blast and with groups experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. This investigation will improve the characterization of blast-related traumatic brain injury, describe the essential features of the condition in terms of neural function and structure to inform diagnosis, and characterize mechanisms of recovery after blast-related neural injury to allow the creation of interventions that return soldiers to maximum levels of functioning.