Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries, Traumatic"

Pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading killer of children worldwide but effective treatments for TBI are limited. Although evidenced-based pediatric TBI guidelines exist, adherence to these guidelines is low,leading us to develop a new Pediatric Guideline Adherence and Outcomes (PEGASUS) program to increase TBI guideline adherence. We propose to test the PEGASUS program's ability to improve TBI guideline adherence and outcomes.

The current study aims to better understand cerebral plasticity mechanisms to optimize non-pharmacological rehabilitation approaches for patients with traumatic brain injury.

The investigators propose to develop a software platform, OnTRACK (Online Treatment Recovery Assistance for Concussion in Kids), for children and adolescents recovering from concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The platform includes a mobile application (app) for the patients and their care team (parents, teachers, coaches, etc.), a database server, and a decision support dashboard for healthcare providers. The OnTRACK app prompts the patient to report post-concussion symptoms across recovery in two distinct but equally important ways: a weekly cross-recovery graded symptom ratings to track overall recovery progress, and short-term daily dynamic exertional symptom responses to guide tolerable daily activity. Teachers and parents and other authorized members of the patient care team also report patient progress when prompted. Beyond symptom reporting, the app provides access to education in the form of short multimedia clips that cover various topics related to concussion recovery based on the PACE (Progressive Activities of Controlled Exertion) model. Using several large existing datasets on recovery trajectories, the serial symptom reports indicate (a) level of symptom severity, change over time, and whether recovery is following a typical or atypical pattern. The healthcare provider is regularly updated regarding recovery progress and, if an atypical pattern is reported, he/she receives an alert to assess further and consider referral for additional treatment. To guide daily recovery, OnTRACK uses empirically-derived algorithms to determine when the level of symptom exacerbation reaches a certain threshold, delivering an alert to the healthcare provider who can give feedback to the child to manage daily activities and reduce disruptive symptoms. The primary goal of the OnTRACK system is to afford the healthcare provider, patient, and family greater confidence with data-driven decisions upon which to follow evidence-based treatment guidelines and to improve communication between family and provider.

The goal of this interventional study is to Measure the potential benefits of combined administration of cerebrolysin and amantadine sulfate as an add-on therapy to the standard management of patients admitted to the ICU with traumatic brain injury.

The overall aim of the study is to advance the knowledge on the characterization and underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of persistent post-traumatic headache (PTH) with a direct impact on the ability to diagnose and manage PTH effectively. The investigators also aim to evaluate the efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a novel intervention on PTH.

Various methods have been studied to evaluate autoregulation. However, there is currently no universally accepted technique to assess integrity of the cerebral autoregulation neurovascular system. In the last decade, significant progress has been achieved in developing methods to assess cerebral autoregulation by quantifying cross-correlation between spontaneous oscillations in CBF or oxygenation and similar oscillations in arterial blood pressure. In this study the investigators will analyze the relationship between spontaneous fluctuations in mean arterial blood pressure and cerebral blood flow velocity or cerebral regional oxygenation to investigate two novel methods for measuring cerebral autoregulation, Transfer Function Analysis and Wavelet Coherence after acute pediatric brain injury.

The aim of this study is to develop exercise prescription of TBI patients and then to evaluate the effectiveness of programmed aerobic walking exercise to improve cognitive performance, depression relief, motivation, symptom, resilience and quality of life with improvement of CBF. This will be a randomized controlled clinical trial, using a mixed method to explore the feasibility and validity of such a safety exercise prescription. Then, a randomized clinical control trial will be applied in TBI patients to evaluate the effectiveness of programmed aerobic exercise to promote psysical-psycho-social health such as cognitive status, 6 minutes walk test, depression relief, motivation, symptom, resilience and quality of life.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of disability in the Veteran population, often resulting in chronic pain and sleep disturbances, among other issues. Extensive rehabilitative efforts are usually required and often prevent return to the workforce and community. Disturbed sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness are among the most pervasive and enduring problems after TBI, which the investigators hypothesize is a significant contributor to these functional impairments and an impediment toward rehabilitation. Thus, this research aims to enhance sleep quality as a means to reduce pain and improve quality of life and functional outcome measures in Veterans with TBI. The investigators predict that the proposed intervention, morning bright light therapy, if found effective, will be cost-effective, rapidly deployable, and highly accepted by Veterans with TBI.

The goal of this proposal is to examine the influence of feedback timing on learning and brain function in individuals with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), with and without depression.

21 healthy control participants will be recruited. On Day 1 they will complete reward-guided decision making tasks and questionnaires followed by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. On Days 2 and 3 they will receive repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) targeting a specific part of the brain called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) or sham stimulation, and will then repeat a subset of the same decision making tasks and fMRI sequences. If brain stimulation modifies decision making and dACC activity, it could represent a novel way of treating patients with neural circuit deficits that impede motivated behavior. Of particular relevance to the current trial, this rTMS study will run in parallel with a study of apathy (i.e., diminished motivation) in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), with the goal of eventually leading to a patient-centered trial of rTMS treatment for this disruptive neuropsychiatric symptom.