TY  - JOUR
T1  - 2013 theme issue on violence and human rights: Call for papers
AU  - Cole TB, Flanagin A
Y1  - 2012/11/21
N1  - 10.1001/jama.2012.14369
JO  - JAMA
SP  - 2037
EP  - 2037
VL  - 308
IS  - 19
N2  - 
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.

SN  - 0098-7484
M3  - doi: 10.1001/jama.2012.14369
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2012.14369
ER  -