Noteboom The Law Firm

TBI Rehabilitated With Video Games?

April 9, 2010 - Along with being a health issue for the common population, traumatic brain injury (TBI) it is the single most prevailing injury afflicting deployed soldiers. Approximately 1.7 million Americans suffer from TBI in any given year and 5.3 million are enduring permanent disabilities related to traumatic brain injuries. As part of the search in how to treat TBI, Kinetic Muscles, Inc., (KMI), who provides neurorehabilitation technology focusing on stroke and cerebral palsy patients, received a grant in order to study treatments for veterans with TBI.

The announcement follows on the heels of promising results from Phase I of the study, which combined neuropsychological therapy and digital gaming technology. This led the Department of Defense to fund Phase II, which will confirm how effective the therapy is by performing clinical testing on veterans in VA hospitals.

Video gaming technology presents an interactive atmosphere promoting manual dexterity through powerful, interactive movements. Previous studies have concluded therapies based in video gaming can help those with TBI because they aid:

• Cognitive ability;
• Dexterity;
• Memory;
• Thought processing; and
• Reasoning.

 This therapy is expected to be especially effective if the patients grew up playing video games, like the current generation of soldiers. The base of the video game therapy is having the veterans repeat training of very precise tasks through modern gaming platforms and state of the art cognitive and motor rehabilitation strategies. The coupling of the two technologies will hopefully provide optimism for the future of healthcare for TBI patients.