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#5Thoughts Friday
The
Edition
03/11/2022
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BIAMD Annual Conference
"Moving Forward Together
May 12, 2022—May 13, 2022
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Baltimore North - Pikesville
1726 Reisterstown Road
Pikesville, MD 21208
The Conference "Moving Forward Together" is a multi-track neuro-conference focusing on issues related to: individuals with brain injury and family members, children and adolescents in the school system, advocacy, and professional and clinical training. The purpose of the two-day conference is to provide state-of-the-art information about brain injury treatment, services, research, and advocacy and to improve collaboration and networking between individuals with brain injury, families and professionals.
We will be IN PERSON at the Doubletree in Pikesville, MD.
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To Become a Conference Sponsor like these wonderful organizations - CLICK HERE
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Even a mild case of COVID-19 can damage the brain and addle thinking, scientists found in a study that highlights the illness’s alarming impact on mental function.
Researchers identified COVID-associated brain damage months after infection, including in the region linked to smell, and shrinkage in size equivalent to as much as a decade of normal aging. The changes were linked to cognitive decline in the study, which was published Monday in the journal Nature.
The findings represent striking evidence of the virus’s impact on the central nervous system. More research will be required to understand whether the evidence from the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging at the University of Oxford means COVID-19 will exacerbate the global burden of dementia — which cost an estimated $1.3 trillion in the year the pandemic began — and other neurodegenerative conditions.
“It is a very novel study with conclusive data,” said Avindra Nath, clinical director of the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who wasn’t involved in the research. “The findings are very intriguing, with important implications for the population at large.”
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Frustrated with your TBI? Like video games?
Join the Johns Hopkins Video Game research study!
Participate in a Hopkins Research Study to Help Us Understand Whether Video Games Can Promote Health and Activity in Patients with TBI
- 12 weeks
- 3 hours per week.
- Complete the study and receive $210!
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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was associated with a reduction in self-reported cannabis use by up to 60% among people with schizophrenia who have cannabis use disorder (CUD), according to a CAMH-led study just published in the journal Schizophrenia.
The double-blind study is the first of its kind to investigate the effectiveness of rTMS in treating CUD in people with schizophrenia, and was supported by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the CAMH Foundation.
“People with schizophrenia have very high rates of cannabis use disorder compared to the general population, and there is strong evidence that cannabis use worsens psychiatric symptoms and quality of life in these people,” said senior author CAMH clinician scientist Dr. Tony George.
“Despite the known harmful effects, there is currently no approved treatment for CUD with or without schizophrenia. These results indicate rTMS may be a safe and effective way to reduce cannabis use among people with schizophrenia.”
Until relatively recently, brain stimulation technologies like rTMS were used primarily for treatment-resistant depression. However, studies have now found rTMS to be effective in reducing drug use and cravings for several substance use disorders in the general population.
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When Michael Schneider's anxiety and PTSD flare up, he reaches for the ukulele he keeps next to his computer.
"I can't actually play a song," says Schneider, who suffered two serious brain injuries during nearly 22 years in the Marines. "But I can play chords to take my stress level down."
It's a technique Schneider learned through Creative Forces, an arts therapy initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
It's also an example of how arts therapies are increasingly being used to treat brain conditions including PTSD, depression, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
But most of these treatments, ranging from music to poetry to visual arts, still have not undergone rigorous scientific testing. So artists and brain scientists have launched an initiative called the NeuroArts Blueprint to change that.
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or CLICK HERE to listen to the NPR story about these findings.
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2) What We are Reading This Week |
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One morning in late 2017, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni woke up with strangely blurred vision. He wondered at first if some goo or gunk had worked its way into his right eye. But this was no fleeting annoyance, no fixable inconvenience. Overnight, a rare stroke had cut off blood to one of his optic nerves, rendering him functionally blind in that eye—forever. And he soon learned from doctors that the same disorder could ravage his left eye, too. He could lose his sight altogether.
In The Beauty of Dusk, Bruni hauntingly recounts his adjustment to this daunting reality, a medical and spiritual odyssey that involved not only reappraising his own priorities but also reaching out to, and gathering wisdom from, longtime friends and new acquaintances who had navigated their own traumas and afflictions.
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If you decide to buy anything mentioned in #5ThoughtsFriday,
don't forget to use
donation beneficiary.
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1) Quote We are Contemplating |
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Fear has it's purpose,
Cowardice has none.
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Looking for Something fun to do in Maryland this weekend?
Click the picture below and discover a world of possibilities!
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HAVE A WONDERFUL
HOLIDAY WEEKEND.
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE COVID-19 VACCINE BY GETTING VACCINATED and GETTING THE BOOSTER.
THE LIFE YOU SAVE
MAY BE YOUR OWN.
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Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend.
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