Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries"

The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of an SSRI, sertraline for the use of post-concussive symptoms following a traumatic brain injury. the study also seeks to investigate the relationship between irritability and aggression and anosmia in individuals who have suffered a traumatic brian injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is major health problem that stands as a significant cause of death and permanent disability. TBI is considered as global public health epidemic. On pathophysiologic basis, TBI is described as occurring in two phases, primary and secondary. Once a primary insult occurs like trauma or ischemia, the secondary injury begins though main four mechanisms; ischemia, brain edema, axonal injury and neuro-inflammation. Omega-3 PUFAs (Polyunsaturated fatty acids) are postulated to have neuroregenerative properties with the ability to impact all four main mechanisms of the secondary injury Patients will be allocated into one of two groups through a random table generation; Control group in which patients will follow our local protocol for TBI management without SMOF-lipid infusion. SMOF-lipid group in which patients will receive 0.5 g/Kg SMOF lipid 10% emulsion (Lipid emulsion for intravenous nutrition containing; 6% soybean oil / 6% medium chain triglycerides / 5% olive oil / 3%fish oil) daily over 12 hours starting once admitted to ICU for 7 days

The purpose of this research study is to investigate how useful three balance tests are in predicting fall risk in the individual with traumatic brain injury (TBI). These tests are the Functional Gait Assessment (FGA), the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), and the mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test (mini-BESTest).

Explore the benefit of the game-based virtual reality system in improving lower extremity kinematics and balance in patients suffering from disease/disorders including Diabetes, Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Arthritis, Parkinson's disease, Cognitive Disorders, Brain Injury, Stroke or Frailty. A four to six weeks of training with 2 training session/week will be provided.

Can mindfulness help with attention and emotion difficulties after a brain injury? People who have a brain injury often have problems with their attention and emotions. This study will see if a short mindfulness task can help with these problems. So far, there are not many studies looking at this and those that do show mixed results. When being mindful someone is aware of their attention and focuses on the present moment without passing judgement. This study focuses on over-selectivity and selective attention to threat after a brain injury. These are two concepts involved in attention and emotion problems. Over-selectivity is when someone focuses on only one thing around them and misses other key things. Selective attention to threat is when someone's focus is drawn to something around them that is seen as threatening. This has been shown to cause and keep anxious feelings going. This research will see if a short mindfulness task can help those with a brain injury by reducing overselectivity and selective attention to threat on two tasks. Participants will be recruited from NHS and non-NHS brain injury services. The study will take around two hours to complete for each participant. In summary, this study looks to see if a specific mindfulness exercise can be helpful for specific attention and emotion problems. It could be a first step in making treatment better and giving more treatment options for those with a brain injury.

The aim of this research program is to 1) Evaluate potential problems with vision, inner ear-eye reflexes and deficits of processing eye information that occur following TBI; and 2) Evaluate treatment programs for individuals with eye and inner ear problems that persist for greater than 10 days following injury. This study will include 465 youth and young adults (aged 6-30 years old) who sustain a TBI of any severity. An initial evaluative phase using the best available technology to evaluate eye and inner ear function will be performed, and compared with typical tests that are used in the clinic. If symptoms and functional problems remain 10 days after injury, participants will be randomly placed into a treatment group (including eye movement, inner ear-eye reflex and attention exercises as per our pilot studies) or a control group (typical rehabilitation). Success will be measured in terms of return to sport (mild TBI), achievement of goals (moderate and severe TBI) and quality of life. It is expected that this program will inform clinical practice and future research leading to a treatment program in TBI that includes multiple components.

- Brief Summary: Prospective, cohort, open-label study. The cohort consists of people who have a chronic balance dysfunction due to a mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI). All participants will participate in a 14-week PoNS Treatment protocol - a combination of symptom specific physical exercises and repeated use of the PoNS device. Subjects who meet the initial screening entrance criteria will be scheduled for a baseline assessment to evaluate balance and gait. Subjects will then begin the PoNS Treatment program and re-perform some assessments at 2, 5 and 14 weeks evaluating their functional improvements.

Soccer, the most popular sport in the world, exposes players to repeated head impacts and concussions, due to contact with another player or with the ground. Moreover, routine game-play in soccer involves intentional and repeated head impacts through ball "heading", with frequent high velocities, which might cause a transient brain dysfunction. In this pre-post prospective interventional study, 22 soccer players will perform 10 headers from machine-projected soccer balls at standardized speeds, modelling routine soccer practice. They will perform heading series in 2 different oral conditions, on different days at least 1 week apart: 1) Without mouthguard and tight jaws ; 2) With mouthguard and tight jaws. The strength of the neck muscles will be measured before the heading series. The kinematic of the movement will be recorded during each impact during the 2 heading series, as well as the activity of the jaw muscles which will be recorded by electromyogram. Before and after each heading series, electrophysiological data, multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and cognitive computerized assessment will be acquired

The purpose of this research study is to assess medication self-administration (MSA) and the impact of three different interventions on improving medication adherence. The findings for this study may help develop evidence-based reminder protocols to reduce medication self-administration errors after brain injury.

The investigators are suggesting that closed suction systems may reduce the risk of the ventilator - associated pneumoniae (VAP) and the contamination of the closest unanimated surfaces. In 2011 David et al. have shown that closed suction systems might reduce the incidence of the late VAP. Research team is thinking that preventive bundle with closed suction systems can prevent to onset of the VAP. All enrolled patients is randomizing into two groups: control group - conventional suctioning and research group - suctioning with closed suction system.