Work continues on drug treatments for concussion and TBI

October 09, 2018, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

As research continues into brains, concussion, and TBI. We are learning more about how the brain works and how injuries happen.  This has meant that in the last 5 years great strides have been made in the the detection, treatment and recovery from concussion. New thrusts of research are now focused on medications to treat concussion.

There has been ongoing research in the United States at MIT which since 2015 has been exploring the potential pathway of using a drug to treat people from the progressive damage of ‘severe or repeated concussion’. This summer we heard about Dr. Gillain Hotz who is researching the impact of cannabidiol in pills to treat high school football players suffering concussion.

According to an article published in the American Council of Science and Health :

The hypothesis is that cannabidiol, or CBD, combined with an anesthetic, can reduce brain inflammation after a concussive event, as well as relieve the pain and headaches associated with brain injuries. Researchers from the University of Miami, Dr. Hotz, among them, who is the study's principal investigator, received a $16 million grant in 2016 to conduct a study that's expected to take five years. As one might imagine, there's still a ways to go.

"We're really interested in looking at the effects of CBD -- cannabinoid," said Dr. Hotz, professor of neurological surgery and director of the University of Miami’s Concussion program at its Sports Medicine Institute, speaking to Miami's WLRN-TV. "We hear a lot about medical marijuana and the positive effects this has but nobody's really studied it and we know that CBD is really good for pain, anxiety and headache.

"So why not do a systematic review of this and really find out if this something good that we could be using?," she added. "We really are at the beginning of studying this. We're just in preclinical."   

The recent findings showed cognitive benefits in mice,  with the CBD-anesthetic combination being more effective than treatments involving just one component. Researchers soon hope to run a small, controlled study involving humans using the compound in pill form. If that goes well, eventually a full-scale clinical study will follow.

"Our concussion protocol includes education and training," said Dr. Hotz. "One thing has eluded us — a clinically proven medication to treat concussion."

Whether or not this treatment proves effective, it will be interesting to watch how the treatment of concussion with drug therapies evolves.

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Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

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