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OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of the monoaminergic stabilizer (-)-OSU6162 on mental fatigue in patients with traumatic brain injury.

SETTING: Single-center Neurorehabilitation Clinic.

DESIGN: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

PARTICIPANTS: Sixty-four subjects with traumatic brain injury were randomized to treatment (n = 33) and placebo (n = 31).

MAIN MEASURES: The effects of (-)-OSU6162 at a dose of 15 mg twice a day were evaluated using self-assessment scales and neuropsychological tests measuring mental fatigue.

RESULTS: No difference between groups was observed on any scale at baseline. At follow-up, both groups showed significant improvement on the Fatigue Severity Scale and the Mental Fatigue Scale (both Ps < .01). Similarly, the performance of both groups increased significantly on many neuropsychological tests. However, no significant between-group difference in changes on these scales was observed before or after adjustment for confounders except for one neuropsychological test favoring the control group. Sensitivity analyses showed significantly greater changes in levels of prolactin and folic acid and heart rate (all Ps < .05) in the treatment group. The mean plasma concentration after 4 weeks of treatment was 0.14 (range, 0.01-0.32) μM, which was lower than expected.

INTERPRETATION: Treatment with (-)-OSU6162 had no significant effect on mental fatigue in patients with traumatic brain injury compared with placebo.

Objective: To investigate whether functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used to detect fatigue after traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Setting: Neurorehabilitation clinic.

Participants: Patients with TBI (n = 57) and self-experienced fatigue more than 1 year postinjury, and age- and gender-matched healthy controls (n = 27).

Main Measures: Self-assessment scales of fatigue, a neuropsychological test battery, and fMRI scanning during performance of a fatiguing 27-minute attention task.

Results: During testing within the fMRI scanner, patients showed a higher increase in self-reported fatigue than controls from before to after completing the task (P < .001).The patients also showed lower activity in several regions, including bilateral caudate, thalamus, and anterior insula (all P < .05). Furthermore, the patients failed to display decreased activation over time in regions of interest: the bilateral caudate and anterior thalamus (all P < .01). Left caudate activity correctly identified 91% of patients and 81% of controls, resulting in a positive predictive value of 91%.

Conclusion: The results suggest that chronic fatigue after TBI is associated with altered striato-thalamic-cortical functioning. It would be of interest to study whether fMRI can be used to support the diagnosis of chronic fatigue in future studies.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of monoaminergic stabilizer (-)-OSU6162 on brain activity, as measured by blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in patients in the chronic phase of traumatic brain injury suffering from fatigue.

SETTING: Neurorehabilitation clinic.

PARTICIPANTS: Patients with traumatic brain injury received either placebo (n = 24) or active treatment (n = 28). Healthy controls (n = 27) went through fMRI examination at one point and were used in sensitivity analysis on normalization of BOLD response.

DESIGN: Randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled design.

MAIN MEASURES: Effects on BOLD signal changes from before to after treatment during performance of a fatiguing attention task.

RESULTS: The fMRI results revealed treatment effects within the right occipitotemporal cortex and the right orbitofrontal cortex. In these regions, the BOLD response was normalized relative to healthy controls at the postintervention fMRI session. No effects were seen in regions in which we previously observed activity differences between patients and healthy controls while performing this fMRI task, such as the striatum.

CONCLUSION: (-)-OSU6162 treatment had influences on functional brain activity, although the normalized regional BOLD response was observed in regions that were not a priori hypothesized to be sensitive to this particular treatment, and was not accompanied by any effects on in-scanner test performance or on fatigue.

Objective: To examine the prevalence of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) as compared to healthy controls, and to investigate whether there is an association between WMH lesion burden and performance on neuropsychological tests in patients with TBI.

Methods: A total of 59 patients with TBI and 27 age- and gender- matched healthy controls underwent thorough neuropsychological testing and magnetic resonance imaging. The quantification of WMH lesions was performed using the fully automated Lesion Segmentation Tool.

Results: WMH lesions were more common in patients with TBI than in healthy controls (p = 0.032), and increased with higher TBI severity (p = 0.025). Linear regressions showed that WMH lesions in patients with TBI were not related to performance on any neuropsychological tests (p > 0.05 for all). However, a negative relationship between number of WMH lesions in patients with TBI and self-assessed fatigue was found (r = –0.33, p = 0.026).

Conclusion: WMH lesions are more common in patients with TBI than in healthy controls, and WMH lesions burden increases with TBI severity. However, these lesions do not seem to explain the decreased cognitive functioning or the increased fatigue in patients with TBI.