The brain is a pretty delicate thing. We’ve helped a lot of people who suffered with a traumatic brain injury over the years, and those injuries are usually caused by direct contact between the skull and another object. In some cases, those injuries caused life-altering results.
It turns out that the brain can also suffer even when the injury isn’t done to it at all. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) have just found a link between spinal cord injuries and brain damage. It’s an especially impressive find because it appears that no one else has ever studied it before. The researchers discovered that “spinal cord injuries (SCI) can cause widespread and sustained brain inflammation that leads to progressive loss of nerve cells, with associated cognitive problems and depression,” according to ScienceDaily.com. Perhaps even more important that finding the link is being able to find treatments that could help keep the damage from progressing.
Understanding the dangers of an inflamed brain
The brain and the spine make up your central nervous system (CNS), so it makes sense logically that damage to one may affect the other. According to the Dana Foundation, “memory, mood, activity, and pain are direct products of CNS activity.” Therefore, if the spinal cord is injured the entire CNS processes that injury.
What the research looked at was how people with spinal cord injuries reacted to pain treatments, and what it discovered (essentially) what that an inflammation in the brain may A) have been the result of the injury, and B) could lead to permanent brain damage. An inflamed brain may cause:
- Memory loss
- Loss of motor skills
- Cognitive deficiencies (such as forgetting the right words to use)
- Changes in behavior or personality, such as depression
By identifying a spinal cord injury as the cause for some patients’ symptoms, doctors will now be able to perform the necessary tests on patients’ brains after they sustain a spinal injury – and those tests may help doctors diagnose and then treat any swelling or inflammation, thus leading to the loss of fewer brain cells.
All of this is speculative at this point, because the research hasn‘t been completed. But it could be a tremendous breakthrough for scientists, doctors and victims alike.
If you or your loved one has suffered with a spinal cord injury, please contact Banks and Jones for more information.
T. Scott knows the importance of interacting with colleagues to stay abreast of developments and changes in the legal world. T. Scott frequently teaches CLE courses on trial strategy, teaching other lawyers his methods for success in the courtroom, and is certified as a Rule 31 Mediator in the Tennessee Supreme Court. He is a member of the Knoxville Bar Association, the Tennessee Bar Association, the National Trial Lawyers, and both the Tennessee and American Associations for Justice.
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