Drug to reduce disability from traumatic brain injury being studiedRSS Feed

18 January 2010

A drug therapy which could minimise death and disability that results from traumatic brain injury to soon undergo clinical trials.

The neuroprotective steroid, called allopregnanolone, is to be offered to patients seen in UC Davis Medical Center's level-1 trauma centre in the US.

An $8 million (£4.9 million) grant from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program of the US Department of Defense is funding the research.

The study is to take place over the next five years and will be led by Michael Rogawski, professor and chair of the Department of Neurology in the UC Davis School of Medicine.

Mr Rogawski said that Allopregnanolone has not yet been tested in humans with brain injuries but that previous tests on animal models have shown it to be effective.

"We believe that this approach can provide patients with improved survival and cognition and better overall neurological outcomes. We also will be looking to see if it prevents the development of post-traumatic epilepsy," he added.

A technology recently praised a new mobile device that is currently being developed and could speed up traumatic brain injury diagnosis.

Calvin Goforth, president of the technology venture development firm Virtual Incubation, said that the product has the potential to fulfil both a large market opportunity and great societal need.

Serious Law, award winning traumatic brain injury law firm ADNFCR-2547-ID-19561687-ADNFCR