.jpg)
If you're one of the nearly 30 million Americans* who suffers from migraine headaches, you now have a new way to fight them. This month, a new drug is expected to land in pharmacies that combines two existing migraine drugs.
Find out more here.
.jpg)
A compilation of studies reveal that overeating and undereating can contribute to onset of Alzheimers. These findings as a risk factor may be important to lifestyle changes and propensities.
Read the full article here.
.gif)
Title: psychology
Date: 4/24/2008; Publication: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition;
psychology science or study of the thought processes and behavior of humans and other animals in their interaction with the environment. Psychologists study processes of sense perception , thinking, learning , cognition, emotions and motivations , personality , abnormal behavior, interactions between individuals, and interactions with the environment. The field is closely allied with such disciplines as anthropology and sociology in its concerns with social and environmental influences on behavior; physics in its treatment of vision, hearing, and touch; and biology in the study of the physiological basis of behavior. In its earliest speculative period, psychological study was chiefly embodied in philosophical and theological discussions of the soul.
Development of Modern Psychology
The De anima of Aristotle is considered the first monument of psychology as such, centered around the belief that the heart was the basis for mental activity. The foundations of modern psychology were laid by 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes , who argued that scientific causes could be established for every sort of phenomenon through deductive reasoning. The mind-body theories of Rene Descartes , Baruch Spinoza , and G. W. Leibniz were equally crucial in the development of modern psychology, where the human mind's relation to the body and its actions have been significant topics of debate.
In England the empirical method employed in modern psychological study originated in the work of John Locke , George Berkeley , Thomas Reid , and David Hume . David Hartley , James Mill , John Stuart Mill , and Alexander Bain stressed the relation of physiology to psychology, an important development in the scientific techniques of modern psychology. Important contributions were made in the physiological understanding of human psychology by French philosopher Condillac , F. J. Gall , the German founder of phrenology, and French surgeon Paul Broca , who localized speech centers in the brain.
In the 19th cent., the laboratory work of Ernst Heinrich Weber , Gustave Fechner , Wilhelm Wundt , Hermann von Helmholtz , and Edward Titchener helped to establish psychology as a scientific discipline—both through the use of the scientific method of research, and in the belief that mental processes could be quantified with careful research techniques. The principle of evolution, stemming from Charles Darwin 's theory of natural selection, gave rise to what became known as dynamic psychology. The new approach, presented by American psychologist William James in his Principles of Psychology (1890), looked at consciousness as an evolutionary process.
Out of the new orientation in psychology grew the clinical experiments in hysteria and hypnotism carried on by J. M. Charcot and Pierre Janet in France. Sigmund Freud , in his influential theory of the unconscious, gave a new direction to psychology and laid the groundwork for the psychoanalytic model. Freudian theory took psychology into such fields as education, anthropology, and medicine, and Freudian research methods became the foundations of clinical psychology.
The behaviorism of American psychologist John B. Watson was highly influential in the 1920s and 30s, with its suggestion that psychology should concern itself solely with sensory stimuli and behavioral reaction. Behaviorism has been important in modern psychology, particularly through the work of B. F. Skinner since the 1930s.
Equally important was the development of Gestalt psychology by German psychologists Kurt Koffka , Wolfgang Köhler , and Max Wertheimer . Gestalt theory contended that the task of psychology was to study human thought and behavior as a whole, rather than breaking it down into isolated instances of stimulus and response.
Another influential school of psychology was developed in the 1950s and 60s by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers . Their humanistic theory asserts that people make rational, conscious decisions regarding their lives, and optimistically suggests that individuals tend to reach toward their greatest potential.
Modern Psychology
Modern psychology is divided into several subdisciplines, each based on differing models of behavior and mental processes. Psychologists work in a number of different settings, including universities and colleges, primary and secondary schools, government agencies, private industry, hospitals, clinics, and private practices. Recent years have seen a rise in the significance of applied psychology—as can be seen from the areas contemporary psychologists concern themselves with—with an attendant decline in the importance of psychology in academia. In the United States, clinical psychology has become a significant focus of the discipline, largely separate from psychological research. Clinical psychologists are responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of various psychological problems.
Biological models of behavior have become increasingly prominent in psychological theory, particularly with the development of various tools—such as the positron emission tomography (PET) scan—for mapping the brain. The field of neuropsychology, which studies the brain and the connected nervous system, has been an outgrowth of this contemporary focus on biological explanations of human thought and behavior. Cognitive models, derived from the Gestalt school of psychology, focus on the various thinking processes which mediate between stimuli and responses.
Educational psychology, derived from the 18th and 19th cent. educational reforms of Friedrich W. Froebel , Johann Pestalozzi , and their follower Johann Herbart , was later expanded by G. Stanley Hall and by E. L. Thorndike . It is concerned with the development of improved methods of teaching and learning.
Social psychology, developed by British psychologists William McDougall and Havelock Ellis , studies the effects of various social environments on the individual. Some other branches of the field include developmental psychology, which studies the changes in thought and behavior through the course of life; experimental psychology, which is the laboratory research involved in the understanding of the mind; and personality psychology, which deals specifically with individual personality and the processes by which it is formed.
In recent years a number of new fields of psychology have emerged. Industrial/organizational psychology, emerging from social psychology, focuses on the workplace and considers such topics as job satisfaction, leadership, and productivity. Health psychology examines how psychological factors contribute to pathology, and demonstrates how psychology can contribute to recovery and illness prevention for such somatic disorders as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. In environmental psychology, research focuses on how individuals react to their physical environments, and suggests improvements which may be beneficial to psychological health. Other new areas of psychology include counseling psychology, school psychology, forensic psychology, and community psychology.
Bibliography
See R. Fancher, Pioneers in Psychology (1979); D. Robinson, An Intellectual History of Modern Psychology (1986); E. Hilgard, Psychology in America (1987); M. Ash and W. Woodward, Psychology in 20th Century Thought and Society (1989); R. B. Evans, V. S. Sexton, and T. C. Cadwallader, ed., The American Psychological Association (1992).
Author not available, PSYCHOLOGY., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
.gif)
brain the supervisory center of the nervous system in all vertebrates. It also serves as the site of emotions, memory, self-awareness, and thought.
Anatomy and Function
Occupying the skull cavity (cranium), the adult human brain normally weighs from 2 1/4 to 3 1/4 lb (1-1.5 kg). Differences in weight and size do not correlate with differences in mental ability; an elephant's brain weighs more than four times that of a human. In invertebrates a group of ganglia or even a single ganglion may serve as a rudimentary brain.
By means of electrochemical impulses the brain directly controls conscious or voluntary behavior, such as walking and thinking. It also monitors, through feedback circuitry, most involuntary behavior—connections with the autonomic nervous system enable the brain to adjust heartbeat, blood pressure, fluid balance, posture, and other functions—and influences automatic activities of the internal organs. There are no pain receptors in brain tissue. A headache is felt because of sensory impulses coming chiefly from the meninges or scalp.
Anatomically the brain has three major parts, the hindbrain (including the cerebellum and the brain stem ), the midbrain, and the forebrain (including the diencephalon and the cerebrum). Every brain area has an associated function, although many functions may involve a number of different areas. The cerebellum coordinates muscular movements and, along with the midbrain, monitors posture. The brain stem, which incorporates the medulla and the pons, monitors involuntary activities such as breathing and vomiting.
The thalamus , which forms the major part of the diencephalon, receives incoming sensory impulses and routes them to the appropriate higher centers. The hypothalamus , occupying the rest of the diencephalon, regulates heartbeat, body temperature, and fluid balance. Above the thalamus extends the corpus callosum, a neuron-rich membrane connecting the two hemispheres of the cerebrum.
The cerebrum, occupying the topmost portion of the skull, is by far the largest sector of the brain. Split vertically into left and right hemispheres, it appears deeply fissured and grooved. Its upper surface, the cerebral cortex, contains most of the master controls of the body. In the cortex ultimate analysis of sensory data occurs, and motor impulses originate that initiate, reinforce, or inhibit the entire spectrum of muscle and gland activity. The parts of the cerebrum intercommunicate through association tracts consisting of connector neurons. Association neurons account for approximately half of the total number of nerve cells in the brain. The tracts are believed to be involved with reasoning, learning, and memory. The left half of the cerebrum controls the right side of the body; the right half controls the left side.
Other important parts of the brain include the pituitary gland , the basal ganglia, and the reticular activating system (RAS). The pituitary participates in growth regulation. The basal ganglia, located just above the diencephalon in each cerebral hemisphere, handle coordination and habitual but acquired skills like chewing and playing the piano. The RAS forms a special system of nerve cells linking the medulla, pons, midbrain, and cerebral cortex. The RAS functions as a sentry. In a noisy crowd, for example, the RAS alerts a person when a friend speaks and enables that person to ignore other sounds.
Nerve fibers in the brain are sheathed in a near-white substance called myelin and form the white matter of the brain. Nerve cell bodies, which are not covered by myelin sheaths, form the gray matter. The billions of nerve cells in the brain are structurally supported by the hairlike filaments of glial cells. Smaller than nerve cells and ten times as numerous, the glia account for an estimated half of the brain's weight. Cranial blood vessels in the brain have certain selective permiability characteristics that largely constitute the "blood-brain barrier." The entire brain is enveloped in three protective sheets known as the meninges , continuations of the membranes that wrap the spinal cord . The two inner sheets enclose a shock-absorbing cushion of cerebrospinal fluid.
Neural Pathways
Sensory nerve cells feed information to the brain from every part of the body, external and internal. The brain evaluates the data, then sends directives through the motor nerve cells to muscles and glands, causing them to take suitable action. Alternatively, the brain may inhibit action, as when a person tries not to laugh or cry, or it may simply store the information for later use. Both incoming information and outgoing commands traverse the brain and the rest of the nervous system in the form of electrochemical impulses.
The human brain consists of some 10 billion interconnected nerve cells with innumerable extensions. This interlacing of nerve fibers and their junctions allows a nerve impulse to follow any of a virtually unlimited number of pathways. The effect is to give humans a seemingly infinite variety of responses to sensory input, which may depend upon experience, mood, or any of numerous other factors. During both sleep and consciousness, the ceaseless electrochemical activity in the brain generates brain waves that can be electronically detected and recorded (see electroencephalography ).
Research
Brain research, now often referred to as a part of neuropsychology, cognitive science, psychobiology, or other similar fields, has become much more active in recent years. Aided largely by advanced new imaging techniques such as MRI ( magnetic resonance imaging) and the PET (positron emission tomography) scan, neuroscientists have been better able to localize specific functions involving thought, language, perceiving, mental imaging, memory, and other abilities. Much more has been learned about the roles of neurotransmitters as well. New life has been given to the traditional philosophical debate on how to reconcile the seeming contradiction between the richness of subjective experience, including self-awareness, with purely scientific explanations of brain function.
Bibliography
See D. Dennett, Consciousness Explained (1991); J. A. Hobson, The Chemistry of Conscious States (1994); S. A. Greenfield, The Human Brain (1997); M. R. W. Dawson, Understanding Cognitive Science (1998); J. M. Allman, Evolving Brains (1999).
Author not available, BRAIN., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
WHAT does it mean to be human, to be in control of one's own mind? What is the nature of consciousness, the mysterious property of self-awareness that we all have and yet which no scientist understands? Is there any such thing as free will, or are our minds at the mercy of some unknown force? These are the fundamental questions that have perplexed philosophers and, increasingly, scientists for centuries.
Until recently they seemed utterly unfathomable; after all, how do you test for something like free will in the laboratory? But now science is coming up with some fascinating -- and deeply uncomfortable -- answers.
This week, for instance, Professor John-Dylan Haynes and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute in Germany report the findings of an extraordinary experiment which seems to show that 'free will' -- the most cherished tenet of humanity, which decrees that Man has total control of his own actions -- may, in fact, be little more than an illusion.
For in their experiment, the scientists found that we may not be making conscious choices at all. Rather, our subconscious minds may be dictating our actions, long before we realise.
Analyse It is a troubling suggestion. As Prof Haynes says: 'The impression that we are freely able to choose between different possible courses of action is fundamental to our mental health.' If we are not in control after all, then that makes humans little more than automatons.
In his experiment, volunteers were asked to view a stream of letters on a computer screen and told, at some point, of their choosing, to press a button either with their left or right index finger -- and remember the letter that was on the screen when they did so.
The volunteers were also connected to brain-scanning MRI machines which were able to monitor and analyse brain patterns. These 'mind- reading' scanners could recognise when the brain had decided on a course of action.
To the researchers' astonishment, it turned out that the volunteers' brains would reach a decision about pressing one of the buttons several seconds before the volunteers actually thought they had made up their minds.
The implications are hugely significant, because the experiby ment suggests that what we think of as a 'conscious decision' may, in fact, be no such thing.
The traditional 'folk science' picture of the mind has our 'conscious self' as a little man sitting in our heads, pushing buttons and pulling levers, filing 'thoughts', receiving messages from eyes and ears and making our muscles move.
What Prof Haynes's experiment seems to show is that we need a new picture; instead of that little man pushing and pulling levers, he is merely a passive observer, lazing back in his chair and watching it all happen.
It is as though what we are actually aware of is no more than a film show, and the decision-making is made purely unconsciously.
Disturbing It is a disturbing picture, because it reinforces the view that we are mere machines, pieces of biological clockwork that have no more free will than a Swiss watch.
This sounds counter to common sense, but the more you think about it the more it is clear that much of what we do is done on 'autopilot' and that free will is rarely necessary.
If you regularly drive to work, for instance, at the end of your commute tomorrow try to remember the details of your journey. The chances are you will not be able recall more than the basics. When top tennis players are asked to think, consciously, about every stroke and every movement, their game falls to pieces.
Studies of elite sportsmen show that at the top of their game they are performing in a sort of semi-conscious fugue, purely on autopilot.
The 'will', if there is any, comes during the training process, not during the match.
Of course, if we really do not have free will, this opens a can of worms about human morality.
If the brain is a machine, whose decisions are entirely out of our conscious control, then can a criminal be held responsible for his actions? This is a dangerous road to go down. As Prof Haynes admits: 'It would lead to no one being held responsible for anything.' But this isn't the first time science has given a worrying insight into the workings of our brains.
Earlier this year, Nature magazine reported an extraordinary experiment in mind-reading technology.
No stage magic, smoke or mirrors here -- just the clever use of brain-scanning machines and computers to pinpoint and identify actual thoughts as they arise in the brain.
The scientists, led by Dr Jack Gallant of Berkeley University in California, again used MRI scanners to monitor brain activity when volunteers were shown various black and white photographs of everyday scenes -- a house and garden, various countryside views and so on.
The scanner and the computer it was attached to first had to 'learn' how the brain reacted to thousands of images -- what electrical patterns arose when the volunteer was looking at a picture of, say, a house or a car.
The volunteer was then shown photographs and the 'mindreading system' had to work out, from the patterns of electrical activity detected in the brain, what the subject was looking at.
Astonishingly, nine times out of ten the machine was able to work out what the person was looking at. As the authors freely admit, the way is now open to a general mind-reading machine, 'perhaps even to access the visual content of purely mental phenomena, such as dreams and imagery'.
If we can read minds, and even dreams, and prove that free will is a nonsense, then what does that say about the mystery of our minds? In fact, the human brain, for all this, remains by far the most mysterious object known to science.
It is still completely unknown how 3lb of wet jelly, plus tiny electrical currents powered by the energy we release from our food, can give rise to consciousness.
But it does.
Mystery Few modern people believe that the brain is pervaded by some sort of mysterious 'soul'; but how the neurones and synapses of the mind can generate subjective experiences of colour, smell, hate, fear and love is an utter mystery. In fact, many scientists believe it is the greatest mystery of all.
But unless we want to believe in 'souls' or 'auras', we must believe that the brain is a machine -- a very complicated machine, but a machine nonetheless. And that means its workings must, in principle, be deducible, that we can predict its every move, as this freewill experiment seems to show.
Does that mean we will one day be able to calculate what powers love, creates artistic masterpieces, sows awe, and experiences both great sorrow and utter joy? Maybe one day science will have an explanation for all this, but one suspects that even after the questions of the atoms and quarks, the planets and galaxies are finally answered, the deep puzzle of what exactly is going on in our heads will remain forever unsolved.
And perhaps that's the way it should be..
Copyright 2008 Daily Mail Date: 4/18/2008; Publication: Daily Mail; Author: Michael Hanlon
This document provided by HighBeam Research at http://www.highbeam.com
Here is the latest Columbia Encyclopedia definition available for Title: PET scan
Date: 4/24/2008; Publication: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition;
PET scan or positron emission tomography , a medical imaging technique that monitors metabolic, or biochemical, activity in the brain and other organs by tracking the movement and concentration of a radioactive tracer injected into the bloodstream. The technique uses special computerized imaging equipment and rings of detectors surrounding the patient to record gamma radiation produced when positrons (positively charged particles) emitted by the tracer collide with electrons.
PET scans are especially valuable in imaging the brain. They are used in medicine to diagnose brain tumors and strokes, and to locate the origins of epileptic activity; in psychiatry to examine brain function in schizophrenia , bipolar disorder , and other mental illnesses; and in neuropsychology to study such brain functions and capabilities as speech, reading, memory, and dreaming.
Author not available, PET SCAN., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
Lawyers USA published an article last week entitled Defense experts using controversial 'malingering' test.
The author is continuing a series of criticisms leveled at Dr. Paul Lees Haley who is the creator of the Fake Bad Scale. He uses it to categorize personal injury victims as "malingerers" and "fakes." The fake bad scale was created in 1991 by Dr. Paul Lees-Haley, a neuropsychologist in Woodland Hills, Calif. who testifies as an expert witness for the defense.
Since the test recently gained acceptance by the University of Minnesota (the author of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, or MMPI scales), Lees-Haley's Fake Bad Scale is receiving clout. Clout, according to leading doctors and lawyers, is false and misleading.
A person scores a point for answering questions positively. The fake bad scale is a series of 43 true or false questions such as "I have very few headaches," "I have nightmares every few nights" and "My sex life is satisfactory."
Each response of a symptom adds a point toward the total score.
A total score of 23 out of 43 would be considered a "high score" and should "raise suspicions of over-reporting of symptoms," said Dr. Manfred Greiffenstein, a proponent of the test. He added that it would be virtually impossible for anyone who is not exaggerating to score 30 or higher.
However, critics note that the cut-off score has changed. The author previously recommended a cut-off of 20, while others have suggested a cut-off score of 26 for women.
Greiffenstein acknowledged that the test is scored on a "sliding scale."
A leading critic of the test, Dr. James Butcher, PhD, a senior author of the MMPI-2 and a professor at University of Minnesota, said that the fake bad scale does not meet the standards set by other MMPI-2 scales and "greatly overestimates" malingering.
As lawyers, Daubert and evidentiary challenges are raised as to the use and misuse of the Fake Bad Scale.
A new 5 year study is underway to determine how to recognize and treat post traumatic brain stress disorder.
Military and civilian researchers from across Texas will be involved in a five-year study of the best way to detect and treat post-traumatic stress disorder.
The $33 million project will be led by the University of Texas Health Science Center and open to soldiers serving or being treated at Texas military installations, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
Few studies have been conducted that look for the best way to treat veterans and active duty personnel, said Alan Peterson, a retired U.S. Air Force psychologist and health science center professor.
The study will evaluate current forms of the standard treatment and medications. In addition, it will include neuro-imaging to observe changes in brain and genetic studies to search for genes that may place some people at greater risk for the disorder.
Read more from the United Press International.
I came across this brief explanantion of some of the topics I will be presenting with Dr. Joseph Wu of University of California, Irvine, in next week's Brain Injury Association of America Conference in Las Vegas. Here CT, MRI,fMRI, Spect and PET are discussed. These diagnostics show us the structure and metabolism of the brain. EEG (not discussed below) reveals electrical activity of the brain.
Dr. Wu is the Director of the Brain Imaging Center and will be discussing advances in Positron Emission Tomography technology and use in brain injury detection. This information was derived from Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007:
.jpg)
Brain Imaging
Several commonly used diagnostic methods give images of the brain without invading the skull. Some portray anatomy—that is, the structure of the brain—whereas others measure brain function. Two or more methods may be used to complement each other, together providing a more complete picture than would be possible by one method alone.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), introduced in the early 1980s, beams high-frequency radio waves into the brain in a highly magnetized field that causes the protons that form the nuclei of hydrogen atoms in the brain to reemit the radio waves. The reemitted radio waves are analyzed by computer to create thin cross-sectional images of the brain. MRI provides the most detailed images of the brain and is safer than imaging methods that use X rays. However, MRI is a lengthy process and also cannot be used with people who have pacemakers or metal implants, both of which are adversely affected by the magnetic field.
Computed tomography (CT), also known as CT scans, developed in the early 1970s. This imaging method X-rays the brain from many different angles, feeding the information into a computer that produces a series of cross-sectional images. CT is particularly useful for diagnosing blood clots and brain tumors. It is a much quicker process than magnetic resonance imaging and is therefore advantageous in certain situations—for example, with people who are extremely ill.
Changes in brain function due to brain disorders can be visualized in several ways. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy measures the concentration of specific chemical compounds in the brain that may change during specific behaviors. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) maps changes in oxygen concentration that correspond to nerve cell activity.
Positron emission tomography (PET), developed in the mid-1970s, uses computed tomography to visualize radioactive tracers (see Isotopic Tracer), radioactive substances introduced into the brain intravenously or by inhalation. PET can measure such brain functions as cerebral metabolism, blood flow and volume, oxygen use, and the formation of neurotransmitters. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), developed in the 1950s and 1960s, uses radioactive tracers to visualize the circulation and volume of blood in the brain.
Brain-imaging studies have provided new insights into sensory, motor, language, and memory processes, as well as brain disorders such as epilepsy; cerebrovascular disease; Alzheimer's, Parkinson, and Huntington's diseases (see Chorea); and various mental disorders, such as schizophrenia.
.jpg)
Why is it that when a group of soldiers share a horrific battle experience, some are able to work through it and get on with their lives while others suffer the persistent anxiety, emotional numbness and bomb-blasted nightmares of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?
The answer, researchers have long believed, is that an individual's response to trauma — whether in battle, or as result of a natural disaster, a violent crime or some other horror — depends not only on the intensity of that trauma but also on a complex interplay of past experiences and genetic factors. A new paper, published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, provides remarkable support for this explanation and identifies a specific gene that influences susceptibility to PTSD.
Read the whole Time Article by clicking here http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1723204,00.html?xid=rss-health
A boater who was killed when a ray jumped out of the water in the Florida Keys and hit her face died of skull fractures and brain injuries, not from the animal's poisonous barb, a medical examiner said Friday.
Judy Kay Zagorski, 57, a community leader around her hometown of Pigeon, Mich., was in the front of a boat going 25 mph on Thursday when a 75-pound spotted eagle ray leapt from the water and hit her in a freak collision.
Monroe County's medical examiner, Dr. Michael Hunter, determined that the cause of death was "blunt force" head injury and that the collision with the ray killed her off Marathon, about 50 miles northeast of Key West.
Hunter's report noted she suffered "multiple skull fractures and direct brain injury resulting in sudden death," said Jorge Pino, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Archeologists recently unearthed remains in Greece that appear to be evidence of brain surgery on a woman who died 1800 ago!
A bone expert who studied the finds said the skeleton belonged to a woman up to 25 years old who had suffered a severe blow to the crown of her head, Graikos said. The operation was apparently an attempt to save her life.
He said the clearly defined shape of the hole left in the woman's skull was a sign of relatively sophisticated surgery.
"She probably did not survive the operation, as the wound was very large, and there are no signs of healing around the edges," Graikos told The Associated Press.
The discovery in Veria appears to be similar to several others made in other parts of the former Roman Empire, said Simon Mays, an expert on human skeletal remains at English Heritage, a body which advises the British government.
"That kind of operation dates back a long way ... the earliest example dates back about 5,000 years ago in Europe," said Mays, who was not connected to the Greek excavation.
In early examples, cruder holes were made in the skull by slowly scraping the bone away around the edges, but more precise instruments were used in Roman times, he said.
"We know that (brain) surgery was carried out in the Roman empire, and some of the Roman textual sources give quite precise instructions as to how it should be carried out," Mays said.
"This probably fits in with a pattern about what we know (the Romans) could do
Insurance companies are once again trying to preserve their income by cutting health care. The rising cost of CT and other neuroimaging techniques is prompting insurance companies to look for ways to decrease their use.
There is certainly an argument that doctors have been placed in the unenviable position of having to protect themselves by practicing "defensive medicine." But more compelling is the information neuroimaging provides in saving lives or prescribing proper care.
It is no wonder that diagnostic tests increase as technology increases. Moreover, doctors' ability to see and treat disease increases with the use of neuroimaging technology. Just as the Hubbell telescope allows us to see things in outer space previously unseen and allows us to create theories of Relativity, we are better informed and able to understand that sun does not evolve around earth but earth around sun.
Fortunately health insurance companies do not dispute such theories and facts - but if they could save money doing it I bet they would!
Read the article in today's Newsday.
To read more click Study by Center for Studying Health System Change http://hschange.org/CONTENT/968/
The work of Lakoff and Moskowitz has shown the value of understanding 21st century jurors attitudes and beliefs. "Biconceptualism" is in and polarized conservative and progressive is out.
And, of course, David Ball and his comtemporaries have taught us all the value of focus groups in assessing the potential verdicts in cases.
Now a neuroscientist at Berkley is teaming with other specialists to expand the work of cognitive science. Dr. Knight's name popped into the news when it was announced that Nielsen Co., still the world leader in "audience measurement," had made what it called a "strategic investment" in a theretofore unheard-of California company called NeuroFocus, where Dr. Knight additionally serves as chief science adviser and where Dr. A.K. Pradeep, who holds a PhD in engineering, serves as chief executive officer. Together they blend the science side and the business side of an enterprise that uses brainwave analysis to, they assert, unlock the Holy Trinity of advertising. As in:
Are you paying attention?
Are you emotionally engaged?
Have you retained the information that the advertiser is trying to implant in that brain of yours?
As for focus groups, on that subject Dr. Knight's animus is unvarnished. "They're a little bit like juries where it's eight to four for acquittal on the first vote. Then it's 12 to nothing for guilty four days later and it's usually because of social factors and group dominance and all those kinds of behaviours that emerge in a group situation."
"The simple fact is the brain makes behaviour," Dr. Knight continues. "If you can effectively measure the brain, which we think we can ... We can give you information that's not available by any other methodology. You just can't get it in conventional marketing."
This exciting field of cognitive science is making great strides in a variety of fields. To read more click here http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080315.RCOVER15/TPStory/?query=brain+guy
Dr. Brian Levine of the Rotman Research Institute and the University of Toronto, whose study appears in the journal Neurology, finds brain volume loss occurs when tissue dies follwoing brain injury. Levine found losses involved both frontal and posterior brain regions, and the damage was greatest to white matter: tissue that makes up the brain's communication network.
Levine studied brain scans taken from 69 traumatic brain injury patients whose head injuries ranged from mild to moderate or severe. The researchers used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging or MRI to study changes in brain volume a year after the injury.
They ran a computer analysis of these images and found that even patients with mild brain injuries with no apparent scarring had less brain volume.
These findings, published in a widely recognized journal, will help physcians in assisting patients. Levine said the study does not mean that people who have had mild head injuries will have a disability, but it might help to explain why some people never quite recover from their head injury.
"You hear this all the time from people, that they're not the same. A lot of times doctors don't know why," Levine said.
According the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least, 1.4 million people in the United States suffer a traumatic brain injury each year.
At least 5.3 million Americans, or about 2 percent of the U.S. population, need help to perform activities of daily living as a result of their brain injuries.
U.S. scientists have demonstrated living human nerve cells can be engineered into a network that might be used to repair nervous system damage.
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers created a three-dimensional neural network -- a mini nervous system in culture -- that can be transplanted en masse, said Professor Douglas Smith, director of the school's Center for Brain Injury and Repair.
.jpg)
U.S. scientists have demonstrated living human nerve cells can be engineered into a network that might be used to repair nervous system damage.
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers created a three-dimensional neural network -- a mini nervous system in culture -- that can be transplanted en masse, said Professor Douglas Smith, director of the school's Center for Brain Injury and Repair.
The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday about the efficacy of the Fake Bad Scale. Recently added to the MMPI personality test, the scale has generated heated controversy.
On one side are injury victims and their lawyers. who have the backing of Dr. Butcher, among others, and point out that the scale gives false conclusions. On the other side is Dr. Paul Lees-Haley, the creator of the scale, backed by insurance companies and its lawyers, purporting the test is valid only in the subset of personal injury lawsuits.
Dorothy Clay-Sims, a Florida lawyer has lead the effort to expose the Fake Bad Scale as a tool that will, almost without exception, find anyone who takes it, a malingerer.
Read the full article here: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120466776681911325-lMyQjAxMDI4MDA0NTYwNjU3Wj.html
A Special Report in New Scientist that scans reveal propensity of agression in teenagers was released today. Specific brain anatomy is proportionate to agressive behavior. Amygdalas were bigger in both sexes of adolecents demonstrating aggression when confronted in controlled tests.
For those who have children in adolesence, this information may, at least, make some sense of parenting this age group.
To read more click here. http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/brain/dn13373-its-not-fair-brains-may-compel-teens-to-tantrum.html?feedId=brain_rss20
Blast Injuries and veteran brain damage is gaining attention as the war in Iraq continues. Here is an article that addresses how the brain is injured in explosion events and how the brain may actually become increasing damaged as the trauma continues.
Blasts cause delayed brain trauma
Improvised explosive devices have killed at least 1,600 soldiers in Iraq since the United States invaded in 2003. Thanks to high-tech body armor, new helmets, and better resuscitation techniques, many more soldiers now survive blasts. But this has revealed a new problem: Blast exposure, especially repeated exposure, can cause brain damage so subtle that soldiers may not realize they've been wounded. Ibolja Cernak, director of the Biomedicine Business Area at the Applied Physics Laboratory, says that these mild brain injuries can lead to gradual neurodegeneration, similar to Alzheimer's disease.
Most experts acknowledge that explosions can injure the brain even when there is no direct blow to the head. The prevailing argument has been that waves of compressed air emanating from the blast shake the skull with enough force to strain or stretch the brain, not unlike what happens in a bad car crash. "It's like a turbo-charged whiplash," says Ross Bullock, a professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami.
But Cernak's research suggests a different mechanism. She posits that energy from the explosion compresses the abdomen and chest, generating oscillating waves in large blood vessels such as the aorta. These waves, she says, then carry that energy, at the speed of sound in water, to the brain, where it induces slight physiological changes in brain structures — for instance, slowing a cell's metabolism or altering the permeability of its membrane — that can lead to delayed neuronal cell death. The effects can cascade over time. Symptoms such as balance problems and impaired speech may manifest months or years after the blast. Cernak calls this syndrome blast-induced neuro-trauma (BINT).
"If what she's saying is true," says Jeff Bazarian, a brain injury expert at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, "then how the brain gets injured by a blast is very different than how it gets injured in a car accident." Not everyone is convinced that Cernak is right, but if she is, her hypothesis has implications for body armor design. Armor currently used in the field contains hard plates that could, according to Cernak's hypothesis, concentrate the power of a blast and make neurological damage worse.
Cernak began her career at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade. During the fighting that followed the collapse of Yugoslavia in the late 1980s, she was one of the first to study the neurological effects of blast injuries, sometimes collecting blood samples on the battlefield minutes after an explosion. Today most of her research takes place in the lab, where she replicates blast pressure waves using a shock tube, and studies their effect on rodents.
"I've been fighting since 1990 with the military medical community to convince them that BINT exists," Cernak says. "It is still a fight, but finally this problem is getting acknowledged." —Cassandra Willyard, A&S '07 (MA)
I am passing on this email to anyone interested in reviewing Craig's amazing story. Actually there are many amazing stories of brain injury recovery to tell. It helps to tell them especially since there are many more with less amazing endings.
Hello Mr. Titolo,
I am interested in providing encouragement to our veterans and the soldiers who have been wounded while protecting our great country. Additionally, I am interested in providing practical information and insight to assist their families. My name is Craig J. Phillips. I am an alumnus of Oral Robert’s University Class of 1985, an alumnus of the University of Kentucky, graduate program in Rehabilitation Counseling Class of 1990, and a traumatic brain injury survivor. I sustained an open skull fracture with right frontal lobe damage and remained in a coma for 3 weeks at the age of 10 in August of 1967. I underwent brain and skull surgery after waking from the coma. Follow-up cognitive and psyche / social testing revealed that I would not be able to succeed academically beyond high school. In 1967 Neurological Rehabilitation was not available to me, so I had to teach myself how to walk, talk, read, write and speak in complete sentences. I completed high school on time and went on to obtain both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. For an in depth view of my process please read my post, http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/my-journey-thus-far/
Through out my lifetime I developed strategies to overcome many obstacles and in so doing I have achieved far beyond all reasonable expectations. On February 6, 2007 at the encouragement of a friend I created Second Chance to Live. Second Chance to Live, which is located at http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com presents topics in such a way to encourage, motivate and empower the reader to live life on life’s terms. I believe our circumstances are not meant to keep us down, but to build us up. As a traumatic brain injury survivor, I speak from my experience, strength and hope. As a professional, I provide information to encourage, motivate and empower both disabled and non-disabled individuals to not give up on their process. Please read my post, http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com My interest is to provide encouragement, hope, motivation and empowerment to survivors and their families.
Please encourage your readers to visit Second Chance to Live at http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com and consider adding Second Chance to Live to your web site as a useful resource and placing a notice in your newsletter.
Thank you for your time and kindness.
Have a simply phenomenal day!
Craig J. Phillips MRC, BA
Second Chance to Live
Our circumstances are not meant to keep us down, but to build us up!
Note: I recently found out that Second Chance to Live has been published by the European Brain Injury Society E.B.I.S. with in their Autumn 2007 Newsletter http://www.ebissociety.org/automn/newsletter-angl.htm in both French and English. Specifically, My Journey thus Far has been printed. I am encouraged by the growing global interest of the material presented in Second Chance to Live and wanted to share the good news with you.
My article, Traumatic Brain Injury and Displaced Energy has been published by the Brain Injury Association of Niagara, Newsletter January 2008 http://www.niagara.com/bian/
Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Neuropsychology http://www.tbi.pmr.vcu.edu/ My Journey thus Far, TBI Today Volume 6 Issue I — winter 2008 issue News, Ideas and Resources from the Virginia TBI Model System
All members of the American armed forces will soon have their brain functions tested and recorded before and after deploying to a war zone, courtesy of federal legislation co-written by U.S. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine.
The Boston Globe reported the case and verdict of a woman injured when hit by a bus.
A Middlesex County jury, after deliberating just four hours, awarded $10 million yesterday to a 58-year-old Somerville woman who suffered brain damage when she was hit by an MBTA bus while waiting to get to work.
Louise Scialdone is unable to work and has trouble with her balance and her memory, said her lawyer, Paul Mitchell of Boston. She is sensitive to light and noise and, though formerly an avid reader, she can now handle only third-grade-level material, he said. She has good days and bad ones, Mitchell added.
"She can certainly pick up the phone and give you a call, but she might not be able to tomorrow," said Mitchell, who represented Scialdone at trial with his partner John DeSimone.
With interest, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority now owes Scialdone close to $12.8 million from the date the suit was filed, said her lawyers and the MBTA.
Scaldone will use the money to upgrade her care, which she needs around the clock, at a cost of about $200,000 a year, Mitchell said. She will move from a nursing home to a brain injury rehabilitation center.
It was icy on Feb. 4, 2004, when Scialdone, who used a walker because of arthritis, was waiting at a bus stop on McGrath Highway, on her way to her job as a clerk at the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance. The bus driver lost control of the vehicle, fishtailed onto the sidewalk, and knocked Scialdone off her feet, Mitchell said. Scialdone was thrown 5 feet, and her head hit a parked car, Mitchell said. She was knocked unconscious and hospitalized for 13 hours. A week later, she was readmitted for 20 days. She filed the lawsuit 18 months later.
Scialdone's lawyers told the 16-member jury that the bus driver was traveling too fast for the slick roads. A witness estimated that the bus, which was out of service, was moving about 30 miles per hour, the lawyers said.
The T argued that some of Scialdone's injuries were caused by her preexisting arthritic condition. Because of her injuries, Scialdone attended only part of the two-week trial, Mitchell said.
The bus driver who hit Scialdone, Tracy Sullivan, remains on the job, Mitchell said.
Pesaturo, citing policy, would not confirm the driver's name but said she served a one-day suspension before returning to work.
Attempts to reach her through the MBTA were unsuccessful.
Before the case went to trial, Mitchell offered to settle for $9 million, but the T offered no more than $1 million, Mitchell said.
Stephanie Mackesy, Scialdone's daughter, drove from Bennington, N.H., to attend the trial.
She said her mother used to take her 14-year-old grandchild on vacations and day trips to museums, but cannot interact the same way with her 3-year-old granddaughter.
"It's completely ruined my mother's life," said Mackesy.
more stories like this
Email
Single page
Single page
Reprints
Reprints
Share
Share
Comment
Comment
Share on Digg Share on Facebook Save this article powered by Del.icio.us Your Name
Your e-mail address
(for return address purposes)
E-mail address of recipients
(separate multiple addresses with commas)
Name and both e-mail fields are required. Message (optional)
Disclaimer: Boston.com does not share this information or keep it permanently, as it is for the sole purpose of sending this one time e-mail.
Ads by Google what's this?
Accident Insurance
Search On Accident Insurance Get 5 Top Search Results
www.deal-choices.com"10 Rules of Fat Burning"
Lose 9 lbs every 11 Days with these 10 Easy Rules of Diet & Fat Loss.
www.FatLoss4Idiots.comFind Medical Insurance
Compare medical insurance quotes. Great rates. East. Accurate. Free.
www.BenefitPackages.com
Advertisement
INside Boston.com
News
Take a look back at the notable deaths in this young yearCars
Shopping for a car this Presidents' Day weekend?The Seen
Check out Bill Brett's party pictures around townred sox spring training
Pitchers and catchers work out in Fort MyersPlus...
Blogs |Games |Podcasts |Puzzles |Personals |Movie listings |Classifieds |Globe Magazine Most popular
E-Mailed Searched
MOST E-MAILED STORIES
US flu season getting worse
Emerson Hospital reviewing finances
A new image of Lizzie Borden?
Jess Cain, radio host, dead at 81
rising falling | Full list | About
See full listHOT SEARCHES
– New England Ski Conditions
– Weekend Picks
– Flu Season
– Weather
About this list
More in search
Home| Today's Globe| News| Business| Sports| Lifestyle| A&E| Things to Do| Travel| Cars| Jobs| Real Estate| Local Search
Contact Boston.com | Help| Advertise| Work here| Privacy Statement| Mobile| RSS feeds| Make Boston.com your homepage
Contact The Boston Globe| Subscribe| Manage your subscription| Advertise| The Boston Globe Extras| The Boston Globe Store| © 2008 NY Times Co.
Congress held numerous budget and appropriations hearings this week, as well as several hearings addressing health care provided to wounded service members and veterans.
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS-Ed) held a hearing on Thursday on this year’s proposed budget for the Department of Health and Human Services, featuring HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt as a witness. At the same time, BIAA signed on this week to a coalition letter to the Subcommittee urging its Members to provide $30 million for TBI Act programs this year.
Also this week, both chambers of Congress held important hearings on efforts to improve health care for returning service members, as well as to improve the veterans’ disability benefits system. BIAA submitted questions and comments in relation to several of the hearings.
A significant victory in Medicaid policy was achieved late this week as well, as a Senate Amendment to prevent implementation of the Administration’s proposed regulation restricting reimbursement for Medicaid Targeted Case Management (TCM) was successfully added to an Indian health bill. The Amendment would establish a Moratorium on implementation of the TCM interim rule until April 1, 2009.
Please note that Congress will be not be in session next week, as both chambers observe a week-long Presidents’ Day Recess.
Time magazine reports that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder risk is elevated in situations where a concussion occurs. But not all concussions result in PTSD and not all PTSD requires concussion.
The article, along with the many others since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, have brought the focus on brain injury and related issues into the public forum. I hope this "awakening" will help educate lawyers, insurance companyies, Judges and juries about the very real "unseen" injury.
To read the article click here.
Great article in the Wall Street Journal. Researchers studying brain injury believe they've found a common thread running through many cases of seemingly unrelated social problems: a long-forgotten blow to the head.
"Unidentified traumatic brain injury is an unrecognized major source of social and vocational failure," says Wayne A. Gordon, director of the Brain Injury Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, where much of the research is being done.
To read the full article click here.
This is an interesting video I came across while reading the Wall Street Journal's piece on Brain Injury. Check it out here.
Laura Schiebelhut, BIAA Public Affairs Manager asked me to distribute this update:
President Bush signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 4986), containing important wounded warrior provisions related to TBI care which BIAA actively lobbied for last year, into law on Monday.
At the same time, negotiations continued over the development of an economic stimulus package, as the House passed its version of the bill, which represents a compromise with the Bush Administration. This House version does not include increases in federal Medicaid payments to states, which BIAA strongly supports. BIAA will continue advocating for the inclusion of provisions to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates to states as Senate negotiations on the package go forward next week.
Looking ahead, President Bush’s Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2009 will be delivered to Congress on Monday, February 4. Unfortunately, early reports are that funding for government health programs will be dramatically decreased by more than $2 billion.
I continue to follow the efforts made in diagnosing and treating brain injuries of war veterans. The NY TImes reported a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
About one in six combat troops returning from Iraq have suffered at least one concussion in the war, injuries that, while temporary, could heighten their risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder, researchers are reporting.
The study, in The New England Journal of Medicine, is the military’s first large-scale effort to gauge the effect of mild head injuries — concussions, many of them from roadside blasts — that some experts worry may be causing a host of undiagnosed neurological deficiencies.
The new report found that soldiers who had concussions were more likely than those with other injuries to report a variety of physical and mental symptoms in their first months back home, including headaches, poor sleep and balance problems. But they were also at higher risk for the stress disorder, or PTSD, and that accounted for most of the difference in complaints, the researchers concluded.
Read more click here.
The Las Vegas Review Journal reports on the Canadian Wait time for medical care. I have been following this in my blogs over the past month. Seems that the consensus is that there is a downside to socialized medicine when it comes to getting care quickly and that certainly is a DOWNSIDE.
To read more and see how the democratic candidates weigh in click here.
American supporters of socialized medicine have learned not to call it that, anymore. Instead, they use euphemisms such as "single payer" -- as though they seek to hold some giant lottery in which a Yazoo City garage mechanic named Billy Bob Bufus would be selected to reach into his coveralls and pay everybody else's medical bills for a year.
Early on in his administration, looking for something for the first lady to do, Bill Clinton appointed his wife to head up a giant secret task force to draw up a proposed new nationalized "Health Security Act." Mrs. Clinton put together a 1,300-page doozy. Under her plan, anyone attempting to "get out of line" and pay cash for faster medical attention could have gone to jail.
That sounds far-fetched, but it's actually typical of any "one-payer" government medical monopoly. If things in limited supply are not rationed by price, they have to be rationed by bureaucrats.
Stuart Browning is a young filmmaker who has put together a series of short films warning Americans about the dangers of collectivized medicine and the benefits of free markets in health care. One of these films, "A Short Course in Brain Surgery" can be viewed for free in only a few minutes on your home computer, at www.freemarketcure.com/brainsurgery.php. It's worth the time.
The five-minute short introduces us to a retired Ontario body shop manager named Lindsay McCleith. Mr. McCleith had terrible headaches and suffered a seizure. Both he and his doctor suspected a brain tumor, and asked the Canadian National Health system to schedule the diagnostic test known as an MRI. Mr. McCleith got his appointment -- four months away.
He and his wife offered to pay cash to get faster attention. But that's not allowed in Ontario. (Sound familiar?)
He crossed the border to Buffalo, N.Y., and got his test in four days. Turned out he had a brain tumor the size of a golf ball. Armed with this evidence of the seriousness of his condition, he returned to Canada, seeking quick surgery and reimbursement for his expenses. The Canadian "single-payer" system which American leftists yearn to emulate would do neither.
His doctor estimates Mr. McCleith would have waited eight months for treatment in his home country. Here, the whole process -- diagnosis, consultation, surgery -- took one month.
Fortunately, he and his wife had enough money to cover the $28,000 cost -- though Sandra McCleith says she would have gladly mortgaged her home to pay the bills. "When your life is in danger, you're desperate," she says.
That only works if you can get to America, though. No amount of money would have bought them timely treatment in Canada. Even "asking for permission" to go to the United States takes eight months.
Today, Hillary Clinton says she's "learned her lesson" about proposing socialized medicine.
But one examines her written and spoken record in vain for any declaration that government-enforced collectivism is inherently wrong, in medicine or anywhere else. Instead, we're left to conclude the "lesson" Sen. Clinton has learned is that it's wiser to impose socialized medicine incrementally, one small step at a time, rather than be honest and spell out your intentions, handing fans of freedom as fat and juicy a target as her gigantic "Health Security Act."
Nor is there any indication that her remaining Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, has foresworn this vital plank in the socialists' century-old roadmap to serfdom, either.
Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind. (9th CD), has issued the following news release:
"Americans were shocked to learn one year ago of a crisis in care for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan," Hill added. "America can do better, and this historic funding increase, paired with our Wounded Warriors Act reforms, puts us on the right track for America's veterans."
With the release of these funds, the 110th Congress has provided an extra $6.7 billion over last year for the largest single funding increase in the 77-year history of the Department of Veterans Affairs. This funding is primarily aimed at:
* X Strengthening quality health care for 5.8 million patients, including about 263,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, in the 5th year of the war in Iraq;
* X Investing in much-needed maintenance for VA health care facilities and treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury for returning veterans;
* X Reducing the backlog of veterans (400,000 claims) waiting for their earned benefits by adding 1,800 claims processors.
* X Building on the first steps by this Congress at the beginning of 2007 - increasing veterans' health care and benefits by $5.2 billion for improved care and shorter waiting lines for veterans waiting 177 days to receive their earned benefits.
BIAA policy corner coordinator Laura Schiebelhut asked to post this latest legislative update.
The Senate passed this week a slightly revised version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 4986), following House approval of the same bill last week. Important wounded warrior provisions related to TBI care remain unchanged in the new version, which President Bush is expected to sign into law shortly.
Also this week, negotiations ensued over an economic stimulus package, resulting in a bipartisan agreement by the week’s end. BIAA signed on to a coalition letter urging House and Senate leaders to raise Medicaid reimbursement to states.
In addition, on Tuesday, Sen. Michael B. Enzi (R-WY) unveiled, “Guidelines for Assisting Those with Accessibility Needs,” a manual designed to make congressional offices more accessible to individuals with disabilities. BIAA helped provide suggestions for the guide, which was distributed to all House and Senate offices.
Looking ahead, President Bush will deliver his State of the Union Address on Monday, January 28. This will be followed by the release of the President’s Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2009 on Monday, February 4.
*Distributed by Laura Schiebelhut, BIAA Public Affairs Manager, on behalf of the Brain Injury Association of America; 703-761-0750 ext. 637; lschiebelhut@biausa.org
The Policy Corner is made possible by the Adam Williams Initiative, Centre for Neuro Skills, and Lakeview Healthcare Systems, Inc. The Brain Injury Association of America gratefully acknowledges their support for legislative action.
__________________________________________________________________
Senate Passes Revised Defense Authorization Bill
On Tuesday, the Senate passed a slightly revised version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 4986), following House approval of the same bill last week. Important wounded warrior provisions related to TBI care remain unchanged in the new version, which President Bush is expected to sign into law shortly.
The revised bill contains new language altering a provision in the original bill which expanded the rights of victims to sue foreign governments designated by the State Department as state sponsors of terrorism.
The White House unexpectedly announced on December 28, 2007, that President Bush would not sign the original bill because it included a provision which could allow plaintiffs to freeze Iraq government assets in the United States while their claims against Iraq were being litigated (Iraq was listed as a state sponsor of terrorism under Saddam Hussein’s regime).
One of BIAA’s policy goals for 2008 will be to monitor the implementation of the important TBI provisions contained in this bill. (The December 14, 2007 edition of Policy Corner contains more detailed information on these TBI provisions. You can access this issue, as well as all other archived issues of Policy Corner, by visiting BIAA’s webpage at http://www.biausa.org/policycorner.htm).
Negotiations Ensue Over Economic Stimulus Package
Also this week, negotiations focused on putting together an economic stimulus package, resulting in a bipartisan agreement by the week’s end, although the Senate is expected to possibly bring up further amendments during its consideration of the package in coming weeks.
BIAA signed on to a coalition letter urging House and Senate leaders to temporarily raise Medicaid reimbursement to states in order to prevent states from being forced to make cutbacks in essential state services. Such essential Medicaid services include health care and long-term services and supports, which are often especially important to individuals with disabilities.
BIAA Helps Make Congressional Offices More Accessible
Earlier this week, Sen. Michael B. Enzi (R-WY) unveiled, “Guidelines for Assisting Those with Accessibility Needs,” a manual designed to make congressional offices more accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Through the hard work of Robert Demichelis, BIAA helped provide suggestions for the guide, which was distributed to all House and Senate offices.
The Ministry of Defence reported the following:
Brain injuries can result from relatively minor head injuries or exposure to blasts.
The MoD's surgeon general, Lieutenant General Louis Lilly-white, initiated a project in June last year to investigate mTBI and make recommendations concerning clinical care, education and research.The Under Secretary of State for Defence, Derek Twigg, said: "The commissioning of this study by the surgeon general shows that the MoD is determined to do all that it can to look after the mental health of our forces.
"The study has concluded that there is no evidence to suggest that the operational capability of the UK's Armed Forces is being affected by mTBI. We routinely screen every member of the military for mTBI who undergoes treatment at any of our emergency medical facilities, regardless of the nature of their injuries. However, research is continuing, covering not only such areas as identifying and diagnosing mTBI cases, but also their prevention."
The Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Selly Oak, Birmingham, has identified 585 cases of casualties with Traumatic Brain Injury from a total of more than 36,000 patients treated since 2003.
The young women had survived the car crash. In the five months since parts of her brain had been crushed, she could open her eyes but didn't respond to sights, sounds or jabs. In the jargon of neurology, she was judged to be in a persistent vegetative state. In crueler everyday language, she was a vegetable
Try to comprehend what it is like to be that woman. Do you appreciate the words and caresses of your distraught family while racked with frustration at your inability to reassure them that they are getting through? Or do you drift in a haze, springing to life with a concrete thought when a voice prods you, only to slip back into blankness? If we could experience this existence, would we prefer it to death? And if these questions have answers, would they change our policies toward unresponsive patients--making the Terri Schiavo case look like child's play?
Click here to read the whole story in Time.