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The latest news from across neurorehabilitation.
Smarter rehab8 SepAfter a stroke, up to one in three survivors will experience a condition called spatial neglect – but researchers say there isn’t enough research being done into the condition.
Spatial neglect is a type of vision loss, where a stroke survivor loses awareness of one side. It’s most common after strokes to the right hemisphere, where people will be unaware of objects or people on the right side, says Helen Morse, PhD student University of East Anglia, funded by the Stroke Association. People with spatial neglect don’t have anything physically wrong with their eyes that causes these problems. Morse calls it a ‘complex and bizarre condition’ that can also affect other ways people receive information, such as visually, as well as their hearing and sense of touch. This, she says, makes it a difficult condition to measure, detect and treat.
News8 SepA researcher has been awarded a grant to study how traumatic events affect the brain. The US Office of Naval Research has awarded more than US$800,000 to Ashfaq Adnan, professor of mechanical engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), so he can further his research into blast-related traumatic brain injuries. The grant will [...]
Multiple sclerosis8 SepResearchers followed almost 4,000 people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the UK between 17 March to 24 April 2020, which was early in the virus outbreak.
Over this time, six per cent of the group (237 people) reported having self-diagnosed Covid-19, among whom 23 per cent had a diagnosis from a health professional based on their symptoms and 15 per cent had it confirmed by testing. Of these, three went to hospital, and no deaths were reported. The researchers compared this data to more than 1,200 siblings of the participants who didn't have MS, of whom six per cent had a reported diagnosis of Covid 19. They concluded that the risk of contracting the virus was similar for people with MS and those without.
Multiple sclerosis8 SepA new online activity has been launched to help explain the relationship between multiple sclerosis (MS) and coronavirus to children.
The activity, designed by Digesting Science and aimed at families with six- to 12-year-olds, takes around 20 to 30 minutes, and covers the immune system and how white blood cells fight infections like coronavirus and whether treating MS makes you more vulnerable to coronavirus. Those wanting to try the activity will need some props, including pasta, paper or card, scissors, drinking glasses, a bowl, a blindfold, a pen and some tape. Digesting Science recently hosted a series of online events for young people with MS covering the disease and issues around Covid-19, emotion, diet and lifestyle, and cognitive changes in school.
Interviews8 SepWhen comic artist Wallis Eates saw an ad from Headway East London looking for an artist in residence for the charity’s art studio, she knew she had to apply…
Headway’s East London studio provides a place for members, who all have acquired brain injuries, to create artwork. Eates’ own line of work leading up to this included autobiographical comics, and digital storytelling with prisoners. “I’d been looking for ways to help others share their stories or collaborate on story-sharing,” she tells NR Times.
News8 SepRitalin may be the best course of treatment for depression caused by a traumatic brain injury, researchers have found.
Depression is the most common consequence of a TBI, according new research published in the journal Brain Injury. Up to one third of people have been found to have depression in the first year of having their injury, rising to 61 per cent in the subsequent seven years. Depression has been found to impact recovery after a brain injury, and increase the risk of suicide, the paper states. There are three main types of treatment for TBI-related depression: medicine, psychological interventions, and brain stimulation, otherwise known as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
News8 SepSince the beginning of the pandemic in March, therapists have adapted face-to-face services to comply with social distancing measures. While many patients and practitioners alike seemed to adapt well, now research has confirmed that it can be a practical way of delivering rehab for stroke patients.
A new paper, co-authored by Brodie Sakakibara, assistant professor at the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management has found that remote, virtual rehab works for people recovering from a stroke. Six clinical trials were launched across Canada as part of a Heart and Stroke Foundation initiative, where people recovering from a stroke were given interventions including memory, speech and physical exercise training.
Rehab for all3 SepAt a Hilton Hotel in Maidstone on Valentine's Day last year, protestors interrupted a group of GPs as they voted unanimously to stop commissioning acute stroke services in four hospital across Kent and Medway, where there are around 3,000 cases of stroke treated every year.
Under the Joint Committee of Clinical Commissioning Groups for the Review of Urgent Stroke Services in Kent and Medway’s new plans to adopt three hyper-acute stroke services, there will instead be a 34-bed unit at Darent Valley Hospital, a 38-bed unit at Maidstone Hospital and a 52-bed unit at William Harvey Hospital, along with a two-bed outflow at Eastbourne General Hospital. This means acute services at Margate’s Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM), Medway Hospital, Tunbridge Wells Hospital, and Kent and Canterbury Hospital will stop.
Blood pressure medication can prevent heart attacks and strokes, even in people with normal blood pressure, according to new research.
It has previously been contested whether blood pressure medication is equally beneficial in heart attack and stroke patients compared to those who haven’t had a stroke or heart attack, and when blood pressure is normal. But new research, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2020, has found that it can. "Greater drops in blood pressure with medication lead to greater reductions in the risk of heart attacks and strokes," said principal investigator Kazem Rahimi of the University of Oxford.
News3 SepThe European Neuro Convention, Europe’s only trade event for brain and spine experts, has been postponed until next year.
The event will now be taking place on 9 and 10 March 2021 at NEC, Birmingham. ROAR B2B, the organisers of the event, said: “After extensive consultation with our partners, exhibitors and visitors, we have taken the extremely difficult decision to postpone the event until Spring 2021.
