Familiar voices 'could awake brain injury coma patients'RSS Feed

A clinical trial is being carried out in the US that aims to determine whether hearing a familiar voice could help a brain injury patient come out of a coma.

As part of the study, Karen Schroeder's voice was recorded on to a CD and played four times a day to her son Ryan, who was lying in a coma after suffering a traumatic brain injury.

The voices of Ryan's father and sister were also played to him and he regained consciousness after approximately a month in the trial.

However, researchers say they will not know whether the voice stimulation technique helped Ryan in his recovery until they have completed the study next year.

The clinical trial is being carried out by a team led by Theresa Pape, who is a research assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a research health scientist at Hines VA Hospital.

In other news, research carried out on rats at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore suggests that a dose of epicatechin - a compound found in dark chocolate - could provide protection against brain injury due to a stroke.

News from Serious Law, specialist traumatic brain injury solicitors

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