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Traumatic brain injury

No benefit of progesterone therapy in patients with TBI

Nature Reviews Neurology volume 11, page 65 (2015)Cite this article

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Two recently completed randomized phase III clinical trials have demonstrated that progesterone provides no benefit to patients recovering from severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, raise serious questions about how best to conduct future studies of treatments for TBI.

A substantial portion of the damage caused by TBI arises from the physical and biochemical processes that occur hours to days after the injury event. Thus, the rationale behind both of the trials was that early adminstration of progesterone might prevent or attenuate secondary damage, thereby improving recovery.

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References

  1. Skolnick, B. E. et al. A clinical trial of progesterone for severe traumatic brain injury. N. Engl. Clin. Med. 10.1056/NEJMoa1411090

  2. Wright, D. W. et al. Very early administration of progesterone for acute traumatic brain injury. N. Engl. Clin. Med. 10.1056/NEJMoa1404304

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Authors
  1. Alex Chase
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Menon, D. K. & Maas, A. I. Progress, failures and new approaches for TBI research. Nat. Rev. Neurol.

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Chase, A. No benefit of progesterone therapy in patients with TBI. Nat Rev Neurol 11, 65 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2014.258

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