14 DAY TRIAL // Recent tests showed that electrical brain stimulation technique works extremely well in reviving some abilities in patients who have been in semiconscious states due to past head injuries. The trial was only carried out on one patient, but it gave high hopes to the researchers involved in the study. The research was run by a team of experts from Cornell University's Weill Medical College in New York, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison, N.J. They used the Deep-Brain Stimulation (DBS) method and their study was previously green-lighted by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration).
Researchers wrote in their report: "These findings provide the first evidence that DBS can promote significant late functional recovery from severe traumatic brain injury." Nicholas D. Schiff of Cornell University, one of the researchers involved in the current study added: "We need to do this in more subjects. The next step is to go forward with the current trial and do another case. We need to see where this goes."
The study involved a 38-years-old patient who has suffered a head accident which resulted in a severe brain injury, causing the victim to enter a vegetative state. He had been in a minimally conscious state for more than a 6-year period; he could not communicate with anyone or function appropriately in any way. However, brain scans performed by medical experts showed that many areas of his brain were still undamaged and working.
This is why researchers at the Cleveland Clinic decided to apply the DBS method on the thalamus region of the patient's brain. Immediate tests showed no improvement in the man's abilities, but tests taken 6 month later showed a great improvement in the victim's ability to move, communicate, speak, eat and function.
"Our observations years after the injury occurred challenge the existing practice of early treatment discontinuation for patients with only inconsistent interactive behaviors and motivate further research to develop therapeutic interventions," noted researchers.
The overall findings of the current study have recently been presented at the meeting of the Society for Neuroscience held in Atlanta. James L. Bernat, a neurologist at Dartmouth Medical School who did not take part in the research commented: "It sounds promising. If it turns out to be helpful for other patients, then it certainly would be an important therapy. When you present one case in which something seems to be beneficial, it always raises the question of whether this is typical or unusual. When you have only one case you don't know. But this certainly is encouraging."