Active clinical trials for "Post-Concussion Syndrome"

This research is being done to understand the role of different recovery methods in healing time after athletic or sports related concussion.

Background: A traumatic brain injury (TBI) could mean a person is at high risk for other long-lasting problems. These problems could include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and post-concussive syndrome (PCS). For example, about 700,000 Americans each year who have a TBI later go on to have PTSD also. Depression and PCS are also common in people who had a TBI. Some people will have these problems later. These problems can seriously interfere with a person s life. Some people will not have these problems at all. There are many reasons for this difference. Researchers think the main reason is that people have different genetic and environmental influences. Right now, we only have few kinds of treatments to prevent or treat these problems after a TBI. The few treatments we have often do not work well. It is important to understand what factors make a person at high risk for these problems after a TBI. This could allow researchers and doctors to help address these problems early. Addressing these problems earlier may help a person have better health in the long run. Objectives: To study the biological changes that happen after mild to moderate TBI which could be linked to the onset of PTSD, depression, and post-concussive syndrome To study brain mechanisms that could explain risks for getting a psychiatric disorder after mild to moderate TBI. This will be done using a test called functional MRI (fMRI). This test takes images of the brain while a person is doing a simple task. Eligibility: Men and women who are 18 to 65 years old. Had a mild to moderate TBI (including concussion) in the last month. Design: 5 outpatient visits to the NIH Clinical Center over one year. The first visit is a screening visit to see if you can join the study. This visit must happen within 30 days of the TBI. The visit includes lab work (blood and urine), a history and physical exam done by a physician or nurse practitioner, and a psychiatric interview with a behavioral health nurse. Visits 2, 3, 4 and 5 happen at one, three, six and twelve months post-injury. At these visits participants may have some or all of the following tests: blood and saliva collection, urine collection, questionnaires and interviews to assess symptoms, a test to see your response to stress (called hydrocortisone challenge), and fMRI brain imaging. This study does not provide treatment. This study is not a substitute for seeing a primary care provider. This study should not replace any therapies you may be taking.

This study investigated the utilization of CranioSacral Therapy (CST) in patients with Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS) and capture patient-reported perceptions of their lived experiences of treatment effect upon their symptoms. The first part part was a 10 year chart review of patients who sought out CST to capture data from the medical records. The second part was an anonymous post treatment survey.

The purpose of this study is to validate and refine a diagnostic device that can detect attention and memory deficits that result from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).

The goal of this study was to investigate the biomarkers, neurofilament light chain, inflammatory markers, calcitonin-gene-related peptide, and metabolites from the kynurenine pathway in patients with severe post-concussive symptoms. The main question it aimed to answer was: Are the biomarker concentrations significantly changed in patients with severe post-concussive symptoms compared to healthy individuals? Do the biomarker concentrations change at follow-up? Participants were recruited from a recently published randomized controlled trial (Clinicaltrials.gov no. NCT02337101 / PMID: 31891145 ). The biomarker concentrations were compared to a healthy control group recruited from the Blood Bank at Aarhus University Hospital in 2022.

The purpose of this study is to examine differences in post-concussive (PC) symptom endorsement among four groups of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) Veterans: those with a history of target, service-related, mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Group 1); those with a history of target, service-related, mTBI only (Group 2); those with PTSD only (Group 3); and those with no history of target, service-related, mTBI or PTSD (Group 4) by examining scores on the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI). Support for this study is provided by previous research highlighting the complex relationship between mTBI, PTSD and subsequent PC symptom endorsement (Brenner et al. 2010; Terrio et al, 2009). HYPOTHESES ARE AS FOLLOWS: Individuals with a history of target, service-related, mTBI only (Group 2) and individuals with PTSD only (Group 3) each will report significantly more PC symptoms, as measured by NSI total scores, when compared to those with no history of service-related mTBI or PTSD (Group 4). Individuals with co-occurring target, service-related, mTBI history and PTSD (Group 1) will report significantly more PC symptoms, as measured by total NSI scores, than either those with target, service-related, mTBI only (Group 2) or those with PTSD only (Group 3).

The purpose of this study is to understand how biochemical markers in blood, balance disturbances, and cognitive performance are related to brain blood flow changes after a concussion.

Approximately 1.1 million people a year suffer a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), or concussion, in the United States. Although most MTBI patients fully recover, as many as 28% have physical, cognitive, and/or emotional symptoms up to 6 months post-injury. When symptoms persist past three months, it is known as post-concussion syndrome (PCS). The cause of PCS is unknown, as structural neuroimaging and neuropsychological (NP) testing results are often normal. However, recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research in concussed adults showed differences in brain activity compared to controls on working memory tasks, despite normal structural MRI and neuropsychological findings. We propose improving this research by assessing brain activation patterns during simple versus complex attention and working memory tasks in 10 concussed adults via fMRI. This will be the first study to examine brain activation patterns associated with the degree of effort applied to testing, a factor known to confound interpretation of NP test performance. Validated computerized measures of selective attention (Modified Stroop Interference Task), working memory (n-back), and effort (Green's Medical Symptom Validity Test; MSVT) will be used. Ten paid controls will be used for comparative purposes. We hypothesize that concussed patients will show less brain activation than controls on complex versus simple working memory tasks and that activation patterns in concussed patients will generally be lower in those with suboptimal effort. We will also characterize self-reported emotional and physical symptoms in the PCS patients, which has not been done in prior fMRI research with this population.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of psychosocial factors in creating Persistent Post-concussive symptoms (PPCS). The researchers investigate three hypotheses: (a) Do pre-injury psycho-environmental deficits predict a higher level of PPCS? (b) Do socio-demographic and personal pre-injury deficits relate to (1) a more negative attribution for the child injury by their parents and (2) embracing of a more permissive and authoritarian parenting; and do these factors mediate the symptoms' preservation? (c) Does Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) benefit to reducing PPCS emotional and behavioral symptoms?

The purpose of this study is to determine the early effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in patients with mild traumatic brain injury and persistent post concussion syndrome(PPCS) with cognitive deficits in long term episodic memory and executive function(inhibitory control).