Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is far more common than most people realize — millions of Americans live with the aftereffects of concussions and head injuries, and for a large share of them the symptoms never fully go away. These “persistent post-concussion” problems (headaches, brain fog, poor sleep, anxiety, dizziness, loss of smell) can quietly derail careers, relationships, and independence for years, and they carry an enormous societal and financial cost in lost productivity and ongoing care. What makes this study important is that it tackled these lingering symptoms head-on with a rigorous design. In a double-blind randomized trial, 47 people (40 with TBI) received either 40 real HBOT sessions at 1.5 ATA over 12 weeks or 40 sham sessions. The HBOT group improved almost three times as much on a standard neurobehavioral symptom scale (a 10.6-point gain vs. 3.6), with additional benefits for smell, anxiety, sleep, and balance. When participants were later offered a second 40-session course, they improved further at 12 months — leading the authors to suggest that 80 sessions may work even better than 40 for long-term brain-injury recovery. The takeaway for patients: meaningful improvement may be possible even long after the injury, if enough sessions are completed <view study> Read Less

Mild traumatic brain injury to children can commonly lead to persistent post-concussion syndrome (PPCS). Symptoms can often include headaches, dizziness, sleep problems, difficulties with concentration and memory, mood or anxiety problems, and difficulty tolerating school or exercise. For the child, this can lead to serious long-term developmental consequences. This study looked at children aged 8 to 15, who were suffering from PCS for up to 10 years, and found that the simple administration of 60 hyperbaric oxygen sessions improved both cognitive and behavioral function in these children. <view study> Read Less

Most people who have had a significant brain injury will require extensive rehabilitation. They may need to relearn basic skills, such as walking or talking. The goal is to improve their abilities to perform daily activities. In this case study, a 26-year-old male, suffered a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) from a motor vehicle accident. He was discharged after 8 months and left with significant speech, ambulation, spasticity, and cognitive issues as well as the onset of post-traumatic epilepsy. The family decided to undergo hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and the combination of Neurofeedback (NFB) with HBOT "improved plasticity and functionality in the areas of injury and the correlated symptoms including short-term memory, personality, language, and executive function, as well as significantly reducing the incidence of seizures". These results suggest that HBOT combined with NFB may be a viable option in treating severe brain injuries and should be investigated <view study> Read Less

The benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for dramatic brain injury (TBI) has been confirmed by many studies. Now the question is “what is the best dose (ie, pressure protocol) to achieve the optimal benefits. As new research becomes available, it appears that the lower the pressure, the stronger the benefits. This study confirms the recent data, by showing that 1.6 ATA hyperbaric intervention was superior to 2.2ATA for neurological impairment and the restoration of symptoms following TBI. Researchers in this study suggested that “for the first time that 1.6 ATA HBO has an important protective role in inhibiting both the cytotoxic and the pro-inflammatory actions of histones in the early stage of secondary brain injury”. <view study> Read Less

All participants in this study were diagnosed with persistent post concussion syndrome related to mild traumatic brain injury. A randomized group received a full course of 40 hyperbaric treatments at 1.5 ATA, daly for 60 minutes, 5 consecutive days per week, for a total of 8 weeks (2 month long hyperbaric intervention). The hyperbaric subjects experienced significant improvements in memory, anxiety, sleep, PTSD symptoms, and quality of life. More importantly, After crossing over to HBOT the Control Group experienced near-identical significant improvements. Further improvements were experienced by both groups after completion of their last hyperbaric session, during the 2-month follow-up period.” <view study> Read Less