Hyperbaric Oxygen Consortium Calls On Government Brain Researchers to Open Research Protocols and Offers Help to Ensure Warriors With TBI/PTSD Get Help with Brain Wounds
West Allis, Wisconsin (PRWEB) November 16, 2016 -- The American College of Hyperbaric Medicine, the American Association for Hyperbaric Awareness, the National Hyperbaric Association, and the International Hyperbaric Medical Foundation, in partnership with affiliated researchers and veteran service organizations, have teamed to help the Department of Defense and Veteran’s Administration treat and heal brain-injured veterans. In letters to Service Secretaries and the DOD and VA, the Consortium is offering its help to improve DOD/VA/Army research to discover the safe and effective treatment for hundreds of thousands of brain- wounded veterans suffering with the physical and psycho-emotional-social effects of TBI, Blast, PTSD and Concussion/Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS).
The Institute of Medicine reports that tens of millions of dollars in research and billions in interventions were spent by DOD/VA and that they could not tell whether this staggering sum resulted in effective or adequate care[IOM Report: “Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Military and Veteran Populations: Final Assessment.” June 2016]. While strides have been made in diagnosing these wounds to the brain, virtually nothing new or scientific has been learned about treatments. Yet, very recent Army research reports that, for the first time, there may be a predictable pattern of physical damage to the human brain after BLAST exposure[The PERL Blast Report, The Lancet, Neurology, June 2016]. Veterans with diagnoses of "only PTSD" could be actually suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury. The Consortium is calling on the DOD/VA/Army to treat these physical wounds now.
DOD/VA/Army studies have shown that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a healing environment for TBI/PTSD, and that participants in their studies showed significant medical improvement, particularly when compared to conventional standards of care [Hoge and Jonas. JAMA Internal Medicine, Nov 2014]. Worldwide peer-reviewed research in Israel, Scotland, Canada, China and across the US validate safety, efficacy and objective evidence of successful use of HBOT for TBI/PTSD/Concussion and PCS [Figueroa and Wright, Hyperbaric Oxygen: B-Level Evidence in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Clinical Trials. Neurology]. The Consortium draws attention in its letters to the use of hundreds of drugs, devices and interventions that are used with little evidence that they work; worse, some cause harm, including suicidal ideation [Former Army Secretary Martin R. Hoffman, Letter to Congress, November 2013].
Military medicine is proposing to start another expensive set of studies into the use of HBOT using the same methods and investigators who have failed to accurately interpret data from their previous studies. Scientists worldwide have challenged the US Government methods and findings. More importantly, practitioners in the private sector challenge methods that do not treat the underlying wound to the brain but merely treat symptoms while claiming that the problem is too complex to understand without further staggering sums spent on research [UHM Journal,BIMA Study Volume 43, Issue 5].
A suicide epidemic in the military affects Special Operations warriors and women particularly hard. GEN McCrystal reported that Special Operators commit suicide at twice the rate of their peers, and women service members commit suicide at over six times the rate.] The Consortium of HBOT scientists and practitioners is offering to help the DOD/VA/Army conduct research that utilizes the newest research methods and treatments. Those methods include the newest advances in Bayesian statistical analysis and use of Registries that dramatically shorten the huge costs and time lags necessary for classical drug tests; even the FDA approves of the methods.
These videos give some insight into the role HBOT can play in constructing research protocols as well as in immediate interventions in clinical and evidence-based medicine:
MSGT Scott Roessler http://tinyurl.com/ztxearp
CAPT Smotherman/Rep John Bennett http://tinyurl.com/lvcf22r
MAJ Ben Richards http://tinyurl.com/hd9ahcd
Joe Namath http://tinyurl.com/kflu9up
The Honorable Patt Maney (BG, USA) http://tinyurl.com/m97x4jp
GnySgt Rotenberry & wife http://tinyurl.com/gpzpxgy
Brian Fleury - Hockey Player http://tinyurl.com/hefs478
Jeffrey A. Niezgoda, MD, American College of Hyperbaric Medicine, http://www.achm.org/, +1 (414) 510-2900, [email protected]
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