Benefits of Green Tea

I was pleased to be a featured speaker at the International Conference on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury held last week in Vancouver, Canada.  The MTBI 2009 assembled experts from a multiplicity of specialties working with brain injury, welcomed a diverse group of experts to collaborate in synthesizing new knowledge.  The conference brought together delegates from around the world, working in areas ranging from the medical and legal implications of MTBI to those working mental health/addiction issues as well as representatives from programs that provide acute, chronic rehabilitation and recovery services.

I spoke on the topic of mild traumatic brain injury and the courtroom.  Also speaking on the program were such internationally renowned experts as Gregory O’Shanick, medical director of BIAA who spoke on the topic “What is so mild about MTBI?”  Also speaking was Erin Bigler, Ph.D., who spoke on neuroimaging and persistent post concussion syndrome; Thomas Kay, Ph.D., who spoke on using the neuropsychological evaluation to understand the person with mild traumatic brain injury; as well as Grant Iverson, Ph.D., who spoke on clinical and methodological challenges associated with identifying residual cognitive deficits.

The conference was organized by Raymond Ancill, M.A. and Stephen Holliday, Ph.D. both of Vancouver, Canada. 

I read an interesting article on The New York Time’s website last week which discusses a rarely seen but yet devastating side effect of brain injuries: patients who  become profoundly suspicious of their closest relationships, often cutting themselves off from those who love them and care for them. They may insist that their spouse is an impostor; that their grown children are body doubles; that a caregiver, a close friend, even their entire family is fake, a duplicate version. Doctors believe these delusions are symptoms of schizophrenia, however recently, researchers have found similar delusions in hundreds of people who are not schizophrenic but have neurological problems including dementia, brain surgery and traumatic blows to the head.

Now a small group of scientists are researching what makes a person’s identity in their brain. Learning what makes identity, researchers say, will help doctors understand how some people preserve their identities in the face of creeping dementia, and how others are sometimes able to reconstitute one.

You can read the full article online here.

The North American Brain Injury Society is pleased to announce that the 22nd Conference on Legal Issues in Brain Injury will be held October 14-17, 2009, at the Austin Downtown Hilton Hotel. The program for the Conference is now available on the NABIS website and includes information on the topics to be discussed, a list of presenters scheduled to attend, and information on continuing legal education credits.

You can access all of the Conference's information online here.