RT Journal
A1 Cole TB, Flanagin A
T1 2013 theme issue on violence and human rights: Call for papers
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2012
FD November 21
VO 308
IS 19
SP 2037
OP 2037
DO 10.1001/jama.2012.14369
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2012.14369
AB 
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is among the most severe outcomes associated with violence. In the United States, TBI is a contributing factor to 30.5% of all injury-related deaths.1 The fourth leading cause of TBI (after falls, “struck by/against,” and motor vehicle crashes) is assault, which accounted for 15 341 hospitalizations and 5813 deaths in the years 2002 through 2006.1 In this issue of JAMA, Zafonte et al2 report the results of a randomized trial of citicoline, a widely used pharmacotherapy for the treatment of patients with TBI. In this trial, 9.3% of the study participants were injured in assaults. Zafonte et al2 found that citicoline treatment did not result in improvement of cognitive or functional status, and as acknowledged in an accompanying editorial by Ruff and Riechers,3 there are no specific, evidence-based therapies for patients with complicated mild or moderate TBI resulting from assault or any other mechanism. Randomized trials of interventions for the treatment and rehabilitation of patients with TBI are clearly needed, even if the interventions turn out to be ineffective. The value of “negative” studies is to expose critical gaps in knowledge and redirect attention to promising alternatives.