Activity, Not Rest, New Concussion Treatment

Researchers at the University at Buffalo are studying how a program of low level exercise—instead of total rest—may be a more effective treatment for concussions.

They predict that the standard of care for acute concussion may undergo a dramatic change, depending on the results of a new exercise treatment that physicians at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo (UBMD) have developed and begun testing. Their test will be the first randomized, controlled clinical trial of this exercise treatment for concussion.

A press release by Ellen Goldbaum, University of Buffalo’s news content manager, urged adolescents from western New York who have had a concussion to contact UBMD Ortho as soon as possible after the injury. Doctors hope to see them within a day or two of the injury if possible. The University of Manitoba is also participating in the study, so the new treatment is available to adolescents living near Winnipeg, Canada. The trial will continue until the summer of 2016.

“If you’re an adolescent who has experienced a concussion in the last few days either on the field or off, we want to see you ASAP, ” said John Leddy, M.D. who is the principal investigator on the study. Leddy is medical director of the UB Concussion Management Clinic, a physician with UBMD Ortho, and clinical professor in the Department of Orthopaedics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB. He sys that interested parents should contact the UB Concussion Management Clinic at 716-829-5499.