A systematic review of treatments for mild traumatic brain injury

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of interventions for mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) in adults as found in the literature. RESEARCH DESIGN: Systematic review of the literature. METHODS: Six electronic databases and 18 journals within the brain injury field were manually searched between the years 1980-2003. References from articles were scanned for further literature. Studies that met broad inclusion criteria were subjected to a formal test of relevance. Those found to be relevant were qualitatively tested for their methodological soundness. RESULTS: One thousand and fifty-five studies were initially identified and 163 were assessed using the relevance tool, yielding 20 studies for review. Four categories of interventions were identified: Pharmacotherapy, Cognitive Rehabilitation, Patient Education and Other. The majority of studies were weak, however there is evidence to support the effectiveness of patient education interventions. CONCLUSIONS: There are few rigorous studies evaluating treatment of MTBI. Limitations of the current literature are presented.