Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: A Review
Abstract
The often-pernicious neuropsychological effects following a mild traumatic brain injury can persist for months or even years. Symptoms associated with head injury can include: headaches, orthostatic hypotension, trouble sleeping, slower processing speed, fatigue, and impairments in attention, memory, and executive functioning. These symptoms can be exacerbated as well as maintained via depression and anxiety. Collectively, this is known as persistent post-concussive syndrome. Interventions to alleviate these symptoms are lacking, expensive, and/or time-consuming. Currently, there has been a surge of interest into the neuroanatomical and neuropsychological correlates of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Evidence suggests that an 8-week MBSR program and its variants may increase cortical gray matter in specific areas such as the hippocampus, portions of the cerebellum, right thalamus, orbitalfrontal cortex, among other areas. Moreover, the literature suggests that such a program has evidenced improved scores on measures of attention, memory, and executive functioning. The extant literatures pertaining to mild traumatic brain injury, persistent post-concussive syndrome, and MBSR are reviewed here. Considerations for future empirical studies to validate the plausibility of using such a program as a neurorehabilitative intervention are suggested. Keywords: mindfulness-based stress reduction, traumatic brain injury, concussion, rehabilitationReferences
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