NIH study treatment of TBI with vision cutouts 20 years post-trauma.

TT, a 42-year-old woman, was severely injured at age 21. The medical record described “Cerebral concussion with possible basal fracture and multiple traumas. Focal edema.” Major symptoms included extremely slow, halting speech, with very poor short-term memory. She carried a photo album with Polaroid shots of everyone she knew so that she could remind herself of her relationship with each person. Dysautonomia was severe; her body temperature had been documented as being very low and she wore wool clothing even in summer heat. She reported visual cutouts only after her tenth treatment session. Extreme fatigue prevented her from doing basic activities of daily living in a reasonable time. For example it took her 4 days to do her laundry.

TT was treated 25 times between 6-5-98 and 8-14-98 as a participant in an NIH-funded study for the treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury. Because of the length of time since her accident there was thought to be no possibility of recovery of function to any measurable degree. However, she reported substantial changes very quickly. After the 3rd treatment she was able to do her laundry in one morning, and organize 150 computer files, something she had not been able to do before.

After 9 sessions she awoke one night with pain radiating form behind an eye to the back of the head, lasing about 20 seconds. Throughout this period cognitive functioning improved and her energy increased making it possible to be more productive. The eye pain following session nine occurred again after session 16 (during a 3 week break for her vacation). However, these were shorter and less painful than the first experience. On 7-30-98 she reported waking with no cutouts in her vision! The visual field remained complete through our last contact 4 years after the study ended. Her body temperature also normalized and her speech became fluent, with only a hint of any hesitation. Medications were reduced from the pre-treatment level. She no longer needed Prozac or as many pain medications.

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