Post-traumatic neural depression and neurobehavioral recovery after brain injury.
There are an estimated 2 million traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) each year in the United States, making the yearly incidence eight times greater than that of breast cancer and 34 times greater than HIV/AIDS. Still, it remains a "silent epidemic" because TBI results in persistent neurobehavioral impairment, without necessarily imparting a physical scar. The present review is a comparative analysis of TBI research, both basic and applied, outlining the evidence that at least one component of the brain's innate response to insult (e.g., post-traumatic neural depression) is sufficiently well understood to be the target of additional clinical studies and therapeutic strategy development.
Hernández
Theresa D
TD
Department of Psychology and the Center for Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. tdh@psych.colorado.edu
D000818:Animals; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D009420:Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*