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Published on: August 16, 2019
Understanding Traumatic Brain Injury in Females: A State-of-the-Art Summary and Future Directions
Eve M Valera1, Annie-Lori C Joseph, Katherine Snedaker
1Departments of Psychiatry (Dr Valera) and Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine (Dr Mannix), Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Valera and Ms Joseph); Department of Psychology, Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts (Ms Joseph); PINK Concussions, Norwalk, Connecticut (Ms Snedaker); Division of Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia (Dr Breiding); US Public Health Service, Rockville, Maryland (Dr Breiding); Departments of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, and Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (Dr Robertson); Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Dr Colantonio); Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas (Dr Levin); Michael E. Debakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, Texas (Dr Levin); VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System, Salt Lake City, Utah (Drs Pugh and Yurgelun-Todd); Department of Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City (Dr Pugh); Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City (Dr Yurgelun-Todd); Division of Emergency Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Mannix); Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York (Dr Bazarian); Neuroscience Center (Drs Cummings and Bellgowan), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (Dr Turtzo), and Office of Research on Women's Health, Office of the Director/DPCPSI (Dr Begg), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland; and School of Rehabilitation Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (Dr Turkstra).
Abstract:
In this report, we identify existing issues and challenges related to research on traumatic brain injury (TBI) in females and provide future directions for research. In 2017, the National Institutes of Health, in partnership with the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine and the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, hosted a workshop that focused on the unique challenges facing researchers, clinicians, patients, and other stakeholders regarding TBI in women. The goal of this "Understanding TBI in Women" workshop was to bring together researchers and clinicians to identify knowledge gaps, best practices, and target populations in research on females and/or sex differences within the field of TBI. The workshop, and the current literature, clearly highlighted that females have been underrepresented in TBI studies and clinical trials and have often been excluded (or ovariectomized) in preclinical studies. Such an absence in research on females has led to an incomplete, and perhaps inaccurate, understanding of TBI in females. The presentations and discussions centered on the existing knowledge regarding sex differences in TBI research and how these differences could be incorporated in preclinical and clinical efforts going forward. Now, a little over 2 years later, we summarize the issues and state of the science that emerged from the "Understanding TBI in Women" workshop while incorporating updates where they exist. Overall, despite some progress, there remains an abundance of research focused on males and relatively little explicitly on females.
