Since Pate Rehabilitation offers treatment and support programs for individuals recovering from acquired brain injuries, I guess it’s no surprise that Monday it touted publication of an article – by one of its founders — on the effectiveness of brain injury rehab.
Dallas-based Pate Rehabilitation issued a press release on the article “Treatment Effect Versus Pretreatment Recovery in Persons With traumatic brain injury: A Study Regarding the Effectiveness of Postacute Rehabilitation.”
The article provided evidence demonstrating that post-acute rehabilitation should be the standard of care following traumatic brain injury (TBI).
”Since rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury began decades ago, there has been conflict about whether rehabilitation is necessary because there is ‘natural recovery,’” Pate Rehabilitation said.
“In 1970, research concluded that after brain cells die, they are not replaced,” it said. “This belief prompted lack of hope for recovery of functioning following brain injury. In the late 1990s, as imaging technology progressed, research definitively showed that some critical parts of the brain continually develop new neurons throughout the life span.”
Pate Rehabilitation said that today research involves mapping of neurons and their connections throughout the brain.
“This research now shows that the connections between neurons can also evolve,” Pate Rehabilitation said. “These connections are greatly influenced by the interaction between the person’s activity and their environment. Current knowledge about the regeneration and the connectivity of brain cells gives us considerable hope for recovery of function after injury.”
The scientific journal PM&R will be publishing an article by Mary Ellen Hayden, the founder of Pate Rehabilitation, showing evidence that post-acute brain injury rehabilitation yields significant gains in functioning with the appropriate environments and activities.
The sample size, 1,274, included individuals with TBI of all severity levels who were treated up to five years after injury. The time since injury had a significant impact on gains in rehabilitation, showing that an earlier admission to rehabilitation results in higher overall life gains, according to Pate Rehabilitation’s press release.
The rehab center maintained that the study suggests that future TBI research should focus not on whether rehabilitation works, but how rehabilitation can work more efficiently and effectively.
President Obama has reported his plan of decade-long scientific efforts to build a comprehensive map of the brain, which Pate Rehabilitation said will bring more hope for brain-injured patients in the future.
Print Friendly Version
Save Page as PDF
