Concussion (Diagnosis)

This study is a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded, therapeutic exploratory clinical trial of branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) in the treatment of concussion. The aim of the study is to determine whether administration of high-dose BCAAs compared to placebo promotes concussion recovery.

Following adolescent concussion, poor sleep health is common and relates to the development of persisting post-concussion symptoms, and uninjured adolescents (independent of concussion) also commonly experience sleep insufficiency. Given the sparse guidance that exists for clinicians to provide evidence-based sleep health recommendations for adolescents with a concussion, the primary objectives of this prospective randomized clinical trial of adolescents with a recent concussion are to discover if a multidimensional and prescriptive sleep health intervention leads to: 1) faster symptom resolution time, better sleep quality, or longer sleep duration; and 2) improved sleep habits, mental health, or academic engagement, relative to standard-of-care post-concussion sleep health guidance. Findings from this research will provide the basis for more precise sleep health recommendations for adolescents who experience a concussion.

The overall goal of this research is to provide pilot data that informs and drives a larger scale research project, incorporating multiple contemporary measurement modalities, to understand the utility and pathological mechanisms by which exposure to nature-based settings may aid in recovery time and symptom relief of individuals suffering from concussion, and decrease their risk of developing Persistent Post-Concussion Syndrome (PPCS). We hypothesize that successful adherence to a nature-based exposure therapy intervention program will decrease recovery time and severity of symptom trajectory of concussion, as measured through multimodal assessments of brain structural and functional integrity.

This research is being done to examine the benefits of a 28 day head cooling intervention on cognition, inflammation of the brain, sleep quality, menstrual symptom interaction, and mood in acutely concussed females. Brain cooling has been shown to cause temporary symptom relief after traumatic brain injury, but its implications for decreasing timeline of full concussion recovery, particularly in females during periods of confounding neuropsychological menstrual symptoms, remains unexplored.

This research project aims to measure how balance is affected by special visual stimulation. Dizziness caused by complex moving visual patterns, known as optokinetic stimulation, is usually called visually induced dizziness (VID). The study includes patients with persistent symptoms after a concussion and those with non-traumatic dizziness. Healthy participants serve as a control group for the comparison of balance and symptom responses. The optokinetic stimulation is done using either a physical rotating disk or a virtual reality (VR) headset. The visual effects are created by bright moving dots. During the stimulation, these patterns move in a specific manner and directions while the subject's balance is recorded. Symptoms such as dizziness, headache, and nausea are also documented. The goal of this project is to improve objective diagnosis of VID. By comparing patients and healthy subjects, the study aim to assess the severity of the disorder. It is also assumed that using different visual stimuli during the balance assessment will offer more sensitive and accurate results. In the long term, this innovative assessment method shall support clinicians to establish the diagnosis of VID, and improve the treatment and management of patients with VID.