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5 Important Qualities of My Son’s TBI Healthcare Team

Nicole Bingaman three-quarter black and white photo

A gentleman asked me, “Looking back at the beginning of your journey, what could have been done on the healthcare team's end to help you?” Taking a deep breath, I realized the question was an open door. I wasn’t sure I felt fully prepared to walk through it. I’ve pondered this question since then and want to share five qualities of healthcare providers that left an impression on me.  

Treating PTSD with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies

Edward Chandler Wright

BrainLine sat down with Dr. Edward C. Wright to discuss PTSD. Dr. Wright is a board-certified clinical psychologist in the Home Base Program of Massachusetts General Hospital, focused primarily on providing treatment for PTSD. He is also part of the Wounded Warrior Project’s® Warrior Care Network®, which helps veterans transition to civilian life. Dr. Wright spoke about PTSD and his use of cognitive-behavioral therapies to treat anxiety and depression.

Dear Fellow Caregivers

Nicole standing with fellow caregiver Danielle and young girl. All of them are smiling.

These words are part of my caregiving truth. Even though they are messy and imperfect, they are full of love. For you. For me. For the caregivers dealing with moments they can’t bring themselves to share, or those who want to cry, but find their tears have run dry.

PTSD Treatment Decision Aid

cover image for PTSD Treatment Decision Aid showing menu and man's face

This decision aid from the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder helps you learn about effective PTSD treatment options. You can read about the treatments or watch videos explaining how they work. You can even build a chart to compare the treatments you like most. At the end, you will get a personalized summary.

The chronic and evolving neurological consequences of traumatic brain injury

graphic representation of a neuron

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can have lifelong and dynamic effects on health and wellbeing. Research on the longterm consequences emphasises that, for many patients, TBI should be conceptualised as a chronic health condition. Evidence suggests that functional outcomes after TBI can show improvement or deterioration up to two decades after injury, and rates of all-cause mortality remain elevated for many years. Furthermore, TBI represents a risk factor for a variety of neurological illnesses, including epilepsy, stroke, and neurodegenerative disease. With respect to neurodegeneration after TBI, post-mortem studies on the long-term neuropathology after injury have identified complex persisting and evolving abnormalities best described as polypathology, which includes chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Despite growing awareness of the lifelong consequences of TBI, substantial gaps in research exist. Improvements are therefore needed in understanding chronic pathologies and their implications for survivors of TBI, which could inform long-term health management in this sizeable patient population.

Staying Healthy Beyond Brain Injury

David Grant and his wife smiling at camera

For close to nine years, I’ve been working on navigating life as a brain injury survivor. Thankfully, as time passes, my life as a brain injury survivor has gotten easier. Like any human being with a heartbeat, though, I have other health issues. These are health issues that need my attention and constant care. It is at the intersection of brain injury and some of my other health concerns where things can get very dicey.

Risk of Repeat Concussion Among Patients Diagnosed at a Pediatric Care Network

kid looking at doctor who is holding up two fingers

Concussion is a common childhood injury that may lead to long-term physical, behavioral, and neurocognitive effects, affecting learning and school performance. There is increasing concern about the potential for repeat concussions among professional and high school athletes, with specific attention focused on understanding how sustaining a concussion alters future concussion risk. Addressing repeat concussion risk among youth has substantial implications for clinical practice in terms of managing exposure — particularly regarding youth sports participation — and long-term health and development.

Genome-wide association study of post-traumatic stress disorder reexperiencing symptoms in >165,000 US veterans

man in sweatshirt and a hat that says veteran

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a major problem among military veterans and civilians alike, yet its pathophysiology remains poorly understood. We performed a genome-wide association study and bioinformatic analyses, which included 146,660 European Americans and 19,983 African Americans in the US Million Veteran Program, to identify genetic risk factors relevant to intrusive reexperiencing of trauma, which is the most characteristic symptom cluster of PTSD. In European Americans, eight distinct significant regions were identified. Three regions had values of P < 5 × 10−10: CAMKV; chromosome 17 closest to KANSL1, but within a large high linkage disequilibrium region that also includes CRHR1; and TCF4. Associations were enriched with respect to the transcriptomic profiles of striatal medium spiny neurons. No significant associations were observed in the African American cohort of the sample. Results in European Americans were replicated in the UK Biobank data. These results provide new insights into the biology of PTSD in a well-powered genome-wide association study.

Acceptance

Nicole Bingaman and her son Taylor

Finding acceptance after a brain injury isn't easy. "For a long while, I bucked against our reality. I found myself caught between what I had once known and an uncertain future. The in-between caused marked turmoil. As much as I didn’t want to accept Taylor’s brain injury as part of our lives, it is. As much as I wish it didn’t affect Taylor and our family … it does."