SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Nearly 500,000 American servicemen and women suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, was also more frequently diagnosed in veterans serving in post 9-11 conflicts. Now, a new non-drug therapy addresses veterans struggling with headaches caused by both.
Memory loss and headaches still plague Army veteran Michael Gatter 18 years after three traumatic brain injuries during deployment in Iraq.
“Somebody had taken an explosive satchel and threw it on top of the vehicle, and it detonated,” Gatter remembers.
Then, Michael’s military vehicle swerved to avoid a runaway truck, rolled over, suspending him in mid-air.
He says, “I unbuckled my harness and when I unbuckled, it came head-first down on the driver’s hatch.”
And strike three, a tank hatch knocked Michael in the head. Those three incidents triggered 20 years of debilitating headaches and memory loss. That is until Michael participated in a groundbreaking cognitive behavioral study conducted by UT Health San Antonio.
It’s called cognitive behavioral therapy for headache, or CBTH. The researchers modified psychotherapy treatment traditionally used for migraine sufferers.
Professor at UT Health San Antonio and South Texas Veterans Health Care System, Don McGeary, PhD, explains, “Not only did we see better headache outcomes from this headache treatment, which was expected, we showed PTSD improvements that were comparable to a gold standard PTSD treatment.”
During therapy, trained clinical psychologists taught vets to prevent their headache triggers, manage stress, and re-engage in daily activities.
“It really helps them cope better,” Professor McGeary reassures.
Gatter adds, “My mission is helping my veteran community. What I like to do is everything I learn, I pass on.”
Professor McGeary and his colleagues developed this therapy by modifying a previous migraine study. All research was conducted at the South Texas Veteran’s Health care system. Professor McGeary and his colleagues are looking to replicate their findings in a more diverse sample. They plan to test CBTH in a larger trial at multiple military and VA sites around the United States.
Contributors to this news report include: Donna Parker, Producer; Bruce Maniscalco, Videographer; Roque Correa, Editor.
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Source:
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: VETERANS AND TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY: HEALING HEADACHES
REPORT: MB #5108
BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI), a form of acquired brain injury, occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue. There were over 64,000 TBI-related deaths in the United States in 2020. That’s about 176 TBI-related deaths every day. Research shows that falls lead to nearly half of the TBI-related hospitalizations, firearm-related suicide is the most common cause of TBI-related deaths in the United States, motor vehicle crashes and assaults are other common ways a person may get a TBI.
https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html)
DIAGNOSING: Moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries can include any of the signs and symptoms of mild injury may appear within the first hours to days after a head injury. Some physical symptoms include loss of consciousness from several minutes to hours, persistent headache or headache that worsens, dilation of one or both pupils of the eyes, and/or clear fluids draining from the nose or ears.
(Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/traumatic-brain-injury/symptoms-causes/syc-20378557)
NEW TECHNOLOGY: A therapeutic method for harnessing the body’s immune system to protect against brain damage was published in May by researchers from the Babraham Institute’s Immunology research program. The collaboration between Professor Adrian Liston of Babraham Institute in England and Professor Matthew Holt of University of Porto produced a targeted delivery system for boosting the numbers of specialized anti-inflammatory immune cells specifically within the brain to restrict brain inflammation and damage. Their brain-specific delivery system protected against brain cell death following brain injury, stroke and in a model of multiple sclerosis.
(Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220526112749.htm)
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT, PLEASE CONTACT:
Steven Lee
(210) 450-3823
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com
