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On 12/30/08, an article entitled New guidelines for brain injury was written by Sherrie Johnson of the Baltimore ABC news affiliate. The article discusses new clinical guidelines on neuroimaging and decision making in adult mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) established by The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although well-intentioned, there are some aspects of the article that can be misinterpreted. Specifically, the article states in the form of a quote that: "People with traumatic brain injuries may appear to be normal and their symptoms may be mild, but there can be hidden dangers," said Richard Hunt, MD, Director of the Division of Injury Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "TBI's can also lead to significant, life-long impairments that prevent a person's ability to function both physically and mentally. These revised guidelines can help ensure that patients with even mild TBI's are identified early and receive the care they need."
There is nothing factually incorrect with the statement. The problem, however, is that one can infer from the quote that a single mild TBI can lead to long-term physical and mental impairments when there is no prospective research showing this to be the case. This is because a discussion on “traumatic brain injury” is being discussed in the same context as mild traumatic brain injury, a problem discussed in this article on MTBIFacts.com.
A review of the empirical literature, as summarized nicely in Dr. Michael McCrea’s (2008) book on the subject shows that a single mild TBI does not lead to long term impairment. This issue is discussed in more detail in this article on MTBIFacts.com about the permanent impairment myth.
This article was written for clarification purposes and not to be critical of Dr. Hunt or Ms. Johsnon. However, both were contacted about this article on 1/4/09 if they wanted to provide any type of response. They were both asked if they could provide a reference for the following statement in the article: “One percent of patients with mild traumatic brain injury harbor a life-threatening neurosurgical lesion.”. On 1/5/09, MTBIFacts.com was contacted by Ms. Johnson and was informed that the quote, information, and statistics were provided by Julie Lloyd from ACEP and that the ABC news article was a posted press release. Ms. Lloyd was contacted on 1/5/09 for a response. No response has been forthcoming to date from Ms. Lloyd or Dr. Hunt.
REFERENCES
McCrea, M. (2008). Mild traumatic brain injury and postconcussion syndrome. The new evidence base for diagnosis and treatment. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dr. Carone offers paid lectures on MTBI, “post concussion syndrome,” and symptom validity testing upon request. He can be contacted at info@mtbifacts.com.
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