Traumatic brain injury patients 'benefit from progesterone'RSS Feed

15 March 2010

People who have experienced traumatic brain injuries may benefit from progesterone treatment, it is claimed, as a new clinical trial is launched.

A small American study investigating the potential effect of progesterone was so promising that the country's National Institutes of Health has financed a larger nationwide study, USA Today reports.

It states that scientists are yet to fully establish why progesterone could protect the brain, but laboratory and animal tests suggest the hormone is critical for the normal development of brain cells and it also reduces swelling from trauma.

The small study referred to by the news provider was completed in 2007 by a team led by Arthur Kellerman, chairman of emergency medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, which found that patients given progesterone were 50 per cent less likely to die than those who received a placebo.

In addition, those with moderate brain injuries who received progesterone were less disabled, according to the authors.

Meanwhile, separate research carried out by Rush University Medical Center in Chicago has discovered that acute stroke patients who use warfarin appear to be more likely to suffer brain injury after their stroke treatment.

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