Use the labels in the right column to find what you want. Or you can go thru them one by one, there are only 33,991 posts. Searching is done in the search box in upper left corner. I blog on anything to do with stroke. DO NOT DO ANYTHING SUGGESTED HERE AS I AM NOT MEDICALLY TRAINED, YOUR DOCTOR IS, LISTEN TO THEM. BUT I BET THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET YOU 100% RECOVERED. I DON'T EITHER BUT HAVE PLENTY OF QUESTIONS FOR YOUR DOCTOR TO ANSWER.
Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain!trillions and trillions of neuronsthatDIEeach day because there areNOeffective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.
What this blog is for:
My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.
ED evaluation of stroke-like symptoms may be more traumatic than actual stroke diagnosis
Key takeaways:
Hospitalization for stroke-like symptoms was tied to higher odds of PTSD at 1 month than true stroke diagnosis.
Preexisting PTSD was linked to higher odds of 1-month PTSD, regardless of the final diagnosis.
Patients who are hospitalized with stroke-like symptoms, but do not
experience a stroke, may yet develop PTSD at a higher rate than patients
who actually had a stroke, a speaker reported.
Stroke-like symptoms — or stroke mimics — included migraine, numbness and dizziness.
Hospitalization for stroke-like symptoms was tied to higher odds of PTSD at 1 month than true stroke diagnosis. Image: Adobe Stock
Findings from the ReACH Stroke study were presented at the International Stroke Conference.
“Stroke mimics matter. As clinicians, we may be quick to dismiss a
patient’s less life-threatening diagnosis, such as migraine or vertigo.
However, these patients may experience significant psychological
distress, which can increase their risk for poorer cardiovascular
health,” Melinda Chang, MS, ANP-BC,
research nurse at the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at
Columbia University Irving Medical Center, said in a press release.
“Knowing that being evaluated for stroke
in an emergency department can itself be a traumatic experience for
many people may help health care professionals recognize PTSD symptoms
and connect patients quickly to the appropriate resources.
“Stroke specialists typically view stroke mimics as less serious than
a confirmed stroke, so we did not expect patients with stroke mimics to
be at higher risk for having PTSD
at 1-month follow-up,” Chang said. “However, the neurologists on our
team have noted that patients with stroke mimics can suffer significant
distress from their stroke-like conditions, so our findings support
these clinical experiences.”
To assess the association between stroke mimic, stroke or transient
ischemic attack diagnosis and likelihood of PTSD 1 month after the index
event, Chang and colleagues enrolled 1,000 patients with suspected
stroke or TIA (mean age, 62 years; 51% women) who presented at the
Columbia University Irving Medical Center from June 2016 to March 2022.
PTSD was evaluated using the PTSD Checklist-5 at index hospitalization and at 1 month after discharge.
The patients’ charts were reviewed by a neurologist, who was masked
to PTSD status and provided a final diagnosis of stroke, TIA, stroke
mimic or equivocal.
Overall, 59.6% of the cohort was diagnosed with stroke, 7.9% with TIA
and 27.4% with stroke mimic, whereas 5.1% was equivocal or missing.
The researchers reported that the most common stroke mimics were
migraine and other headaches, peripheral or cranial neuropathy and
peripheral vertigo.
At 1 month, the prevalence of PTSD was 15.1% for patients with stroke
mimic, 6.3% for those with stroke and 5.5% for those with TIA.
After adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, NIH Stroke Scale,
modified Rankin Scale score and prior PTSD, the odds for PTSD at 1 month
were higher for patients diagnosed with a stroke mimic compared with
those who actually experienced a stroke (OR = 2.99, 95% CI, 1.45-6.18; P < .01) but not TIA (P = .45).
Preexisting PTSD was the only covariate linked to PTSD at 1 month and
was associated with a 10-fold increased likelihood across all diagnoses
(OR = 10.32; 95% CI, 5.3-20.1; P < .01), according to the study.
“It is important for people who are evaluated for stroke to know they
are not alone if they experience flashbacks, disrupted sleep or feel on
edge after their medical event. They should feel comfortable and
empowered to report any concerning symptoms to their health care team so
they can get the help they need,” Chang said in the release.
In
military veterans with traumatic brain injury, treatment with ibogaine
plus magnesium led to dramatic clinical improvements and a favorable
safety profile; further studies with state-of-the art safety monitoring
will be crucial to unlocking the potential benefits of this psychedelic
compound.
The horrors of war have
been with us throughout human history, and neuropsychiatric aftereffects
have garnered increasing attention in recent years. Suicide now kills
more combat veterans than wartime injury1.
What was once described as ‘shell shock’ is now widely subclassified as
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI) or
both. The latter is a signature injury among military service members
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and although many recover fully, a
substantial number experience ongoing mood disorders, sleep disruption,
cognitive impairments, headache and many other concerns. Despite decades
of research, we do not fully understand why different individuals are
plagued by different TBI symptom clusters. This gives rise to a critical
translational challenge, made more urgent by the fact that psychiatric
symptoms linked to TBI tend to be more treatment resistant than their
idiopathic counterparts. Thus, it is likely that TBI requires the
development of distinct treatment approaches, rather than repurposing of
existing psychiatric medications2,3.
Summary: Ibogaine, a plant-based psychoactive drug
combined with magnesium, effectively reduces PTSD, anxiety, and
depression in veterans with traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The study,
involving 30 U.S. special forces veterans, showed significant and
lasting improvements in mental health and functioning post-treatment.
Ibogaine’s
potential extends beyond TBI, offering hope for broader applications in
neuropsychiatric conditions like PTSD and depression. The drug’s safety
profile and positive results suggest a promising avenue for veterans’
mental health treatment.
Key Fact:
Ibogaine,
in combination with magnesium, leads to significant and lasting
improvements in veterans’ mental health and functioning.
This
research offers hope for treating traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and
broader neuropsychiatric conditions such as PTSD and depression.
Ibogaine’s safety profile and effectiveness suggest potential benefits for veterans’ mental health treatment.
Source: Stanford
For
military veterans, many of the deepest wounds of war are invisible:
Traumatic brain injuries resulting from head trauma or blast explosions
are a leading cause of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety,
depression and suicide among veterans. Few treatments have been
effective at diminishing the long-term effects of TBI, leaving many
veterans feeling hopeless.
Now, Stanford researchers
have discovered that the plant-based psychoactive drug ibogaine, when
combined with magnesium to protect the heart, safely and effectively
reduces PTSD, anxiety and depression and improves functioning in
veterans with TBI.
Their new study, to be published online Jan. 5 in Nature Medicine, includes detailed data on 30 veterans of U.S. special forces.
“No other drug has ever been able to alleviate the functional and
neuropsychiatric symptoms of traumatic brain injury,” said Nolan
Williams, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral
sciences. “The results are dramatic, and we intend to study this
compound further.”
Alternative options
Traumatic
brain injury is defined as a disruption in the normal functioning of
the brain resulting from external forces — such as explosions, vehicle
collisions or other bodily impacts. The trauma associated with TBI can
lead to changes in the function and/or structure of the brain, which, in
turn, contributes to neuropsychiatric symptoms.
Hundreds of
thousands of troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq have sustained TBIs
in recent decades, and these injuries are suspected of playing a role in
the high rates of depression and suicide seen among military veterans.
With mainstream treatment options not fully effective for some veterans,
researchers have sought therapeutic alternatives.
Ibogaine is a
naturally occurring compound found in the roots of the African shrub
iboga, and it has been used for centuries in spiritual and healing
ceremonies.
More recently, it has gained interest from the medical
and scientific communities for its potential to treat opioid and
cocaine addiction, and research has suggested that it increases
signaling of several important molecules within the brain, some of which
have been linked to drug addiction and depression.
Since 1970
ibogaine has been designated as a Schedule I drug, preventing its use
within the U.S., but clinics in both Canada and Mexico offer legal
ibogaine treatments.
“There were
a handful of veterans who had gone to this clinic in Mexico and were
reporting anecdotally that they had great improvements in all kinds of
areas of their lives after taking ibogaine,” Williams said. “Our goal
was to characterize those improvements with structured clinical and
neurobiological assessments.”
Capturing ‘before and after’
Williams and his
colleagues at Stanford teamed up with VETS, Inc., a foundation that
helps facilitate psychedelic-assisted therapies for veterans. With
support from VETS, 30 special operations veterans with a history of TBI
and repeated blast exposures, almost all of whom were experiencing
clinically severe psychiatric symptoms and functional disabilities, had
independently scheduled themselves for treatment with magnesium and
ibogaine at a clinic in Mexico.
Before the treatment, Stanford
researchers gauged the participants’ levels of PTSD, anxiety, depression
and functioning based on a combination of self-reported questionnaires
and clinician-administered assessments.
Participants then traveled
to a clinic in Mexico run by Ambio Life Sciences, where under medical
monitoring they received oral ibogaine along with magnesium to help
prevent heart complications that have been associated with ibogaine. The
veterans then returned to Stanford for post-treatment assessments.
“These
men were incredibly intelligent, high-performing individuals who
experienced life-altering functional disability from TBI during their
time in combat,” Williams said. “They were all willing to try most
anything that they thought might help them get their lives back.”
At
the beginning of the study, participants were experiencing clinically
significant levels of disability as measured by the World Health
Organization Disability Assessment Scale 2.0, which assesses disability
in six functional domains, including cognition, mobility, self-care,
getting along, life activities and community participation. In addition,
23 met the criteria for PTSD, 14 for an anxiety disorder and 15 for
alcohol use disorder. In their lifetimes, 19 participants had been
suicidal and seven had attempted suicide.
Life-changing results
On
average, treatment with ibogaine immediately led to significant
improvements in functioning, PTSD, depression and anxiety. Moreover,
those effects persisted until at least one month after treatment — the
endpoint of the study.
Before treatment, the veterans had an average disability rating of
30.2 on the disability assessment scale, equivalent to mild to moderate
disability. One month after treatment, that rating improved to 5.1,
indicating no disability.
Similarly, one month after treatment
participants experienced average reductions of 88% in PTSD symptoms, 87%
in depression symptoms and 81% in anxiety symptoms relative to how they
were before ibogaine treatment. Formal cognitive testing also revealed
improvements in participants’ concentration, information processing,
memory and impulsivity.
“I wasn’t willing to admit I was dealing
with any TBI challenges. I just thought I’d had my bell rung a few times
— until the day I forgot my wife’s name,” said Craig, a 52-year-old
study participant from Colorado who served 27 years in the U.S. Navy.
“Since
[ibogaine treatment], my cognitive function has been fully restored.
This has resulted in advancement at work and vastly improved my ability
to talk to my children and wife.”
“Before the treatment, I was
living life in a blizzard with zero visibility and a cold, hopeless,
listless feeling,” said Sean, a 51-year-old veteran from Arizona with
six combat deployments who participated in the study and says ibogaine
saved his life. “After ibogaine, the storm lifted.”
Importantly,
there were no serious side effects of ibogaine and no instances of the
heart problems that have occasionally been linked to ibogaine. During
treatment, veterans reported only typical symptoms such as headaches and
nausea.
Lessons for PTSD, depression and anxiety
Williams
and his team are planning further analysis of additional data collected
on the veterans but not included in the current study, including brain
scans that could help reveal how ibogaine led to improvements in
cognition. They also hope to launch future studies to further understand
how the drug might be used to treat TBI.
However, they think ibogaine’s drastic effects on TBI also suggest
that it holds broader therapeutic potential for other neuropsychiatric
conditions.
“In addition to treating TBI, I think this may emerge
as a broader neuro-rehab drug,” Williams said. “I think it targets a
whole host of different brain areas and can help us better understand
how to treat other forms of PTSD, anxiety and depression that aren’t
necessarily linked to TBI.”
Funding: The study
was independently funded by philanthropic gifts from Steve and Genevieve
Jurvetson and another anonymous donor. Stanford received no funding
from VETS, Inc. or Ambio.
About this PTSD and psychopharmacology research news
Author: Lisa Kim Source: Stanford Contact Lisa Kim – Stanford Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: The findings will appear in Nature Medicine
