Forbes Magazine has published an article entitled, After the Accident which goes into great detail about a promising new treatment for people who suffer a traumatic brain injury. A new drug named dexanabinol is being developed by an Iselin, New Jersey firm named Pharmos. In studies which have been completed, the drug, if administered within the first six hours of injury, has been shown to assist in minimizing the damage caused by a traumatic brain injury. Dexanabinol has been shown to prevent swelling of the brain, act as an antioxidant and block damage by neurotransmitters which are released following an injury. I encourage you to follow the link above to read this encouraging article.
What I also found interesting about this article was some of the numbers which were presented. It was a sobering assessment of how pervasive traumatic brain injuries are in our society. I have excerpted these numbers in order to share them with you:
5.3 million Americans suffer from a traumatic brain injury related disability
1.5 million new traumatic brain injury incidents occur yearly
85,000 of these individuals are left with a lifelong disability
20:1 is the ratio of traumatic brain injury cases to spinal cord injury cases
Accidents that damage the brain kill 50,000 Americans a year
9 out of 10 marriages end in divorce when one partner has suffered brain damage from an accident