Intrathecal baclofen is a newer approach with reported efficacy and minimal adverse effects. One study of 17 patients with traumatic brain injuries showed improved motor tone and decreased muscle spasms with intrathecal baclofen, but whether these benefits will translate into improved functioning remains unknown.[107]
Botulinum toxin also has shown promise in decreasing hypertonia in patients with head injuries, primarily by improving passive range of motion rather than by decreasing functional disability.[108]
Solid data on cognitive enhancing medications for patients with head injury are lacking. Typically, only small numbers of subjects have been used and demonstrable functional improvement has been only marginally convincing.
Despite these drawbacks, one double-blind, placebo-controlled study of methylphenidate demonstrated improved motor outcomes and attention in patients with head injuries during active treatment, but only 6 patients completed each 30-day treatment arm.[109] A 2006 double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 18 patients with closed head injuries treated with a single dose of 20 mg of methylphenidate achieved significant improvement in reaction times on a working memory test, but no other cognitive tasks significantly benefited.[110]
Donepezil treatment significantly improved visual and verbal memory as well as attentional deployment in 18 patients with head injuries of all levels of severity in a 2004 double-blind, placebo-controlled study.[111] Other less rigorous studies have also reported cognitive improvements in donepezil-treated, head-injured patients.[112]
Anecdotal reports exist of dramatic alerting responses to both levodopa and methylphenidate in patients with vegetative or comatose states. Levodopa treatment has also resulted in improvement in patients with akinesia and rigidity secondary to traumatic substantia nigral damage.[113] Furthermore, levodopa has even produced qualitative cognitive improvements in a small number of head-injured patients.[114]
Emotional lability and the pathologic laughing and crying associated with pseudobulbar palsy reportedly have responded rapidly and exquisitely to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.[115] Sertraline has shown efficacy in depression in mild head injury.[116] Treat other possible psychiatric complications of head injury on a patient-by-patient basis, since no extensive pharmacologic trials of this dimension of head injury have been conducted.
Nonmedical therapy
Although a full review of nonmedical therapies is beyond the scope of this article, some promising new developments have occurred in both physical and cognitive therapies.
Constraint-induced movement therapy is a form of physical therapy that emphasizes using the paralyzed arm and minimizes reliance on the unaffected extremity (patients commonly wear mittens on their unaffected arm for several hours a day). This form of treatment has resulted in significantly improved function of the paralyzed arm when used in small numbers of brain-injured patients 1-6 years after their injury.[117]
In a randomized trial in 120 military personnel with moderate-to-severe head injuries, in-hospital cognitive rehabilitation proved unsuccessful compared to a limited in-home program, but a subgroup post hoc analysis indicated that patients with unconsciousness lasting 1 hour or more had a greater functional recovery with in-hospital cognitive rehabilitation than those in the control group.[118]