Publications by authors named "Carrie Esopenko"

Introduction: Service academy members are at high risk for concussions as a result of participation in both sports and military-specific training activities. Approximately 17% of active duty service members are female, and they face unique challenges in achieving timely recovery from concussions. Understanding the unique characteristics affecting return to unrestricted activity (RTA) among female service academy members is imperative for the ever-growing proportion of females across the U.

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Importance: Blast-related mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), the "signature injury" of post-9/11 conflicts, are associated with clinically relevant, long-term cognitive, psychological, and behavioral dysfunction and disability; however, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear.

Objective: To investigate associations between a history of remote blast-related mild TBI and regional brain volume in a sample of US veterans and active duty service members.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Prospective cohort study of US veterans and active duty service members from the Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium-Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (LIMBIC-CENC), which enrolled more than 1500 participants at 5 sites used in this analysis between 2014 and 2023.

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Deficits in memory performance have been linked to a wide range of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. While many studies have assessed the memory impacts of individual conditions, this study considers a broader perspective by evaluating how memory recall is differentially associated with nine common neuropsychiatric conditions using data drawn from 55 international studies, aggregating 15,883 unique participants aged 15-90. The effects of dementia, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder on immediate, short-, and long-delay verbal learning and memory (VLM) scores were estimated relative to matched healthy individuals.

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Objective: To investigate dizziness, vestibular/oculomotor symptoms, and cervical spine proprioception among adults with/without a concussion history.

Methods: Adults ages 18-40 years with/without a concussion history completed: dizziness handicap inventory (DHI), visio-vestibular exam (VVE), and head repositioning accuracy (HRA, assesses cervical spine proprioception). Linear regression models were used to assess relationships between (1) concussion/no concussion history group and VVE, HRA, and DHI, and (2) DHI with HRA and VVE for the concussion history group.

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Objective: COVID-19 has been associated with myocardial involvement in collegiate athletes. The first report from the Big Ten COVID-19 Cardiac Registry (Registry) was an ecological study that reported myocarditis in 37 of 1597 athletes (2.3%) based on local clinical diagnosis.

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Article Synopsis
  • Many veterans experience intimate partner violence (IPV) and risk factors for this include things like combat experiences, PTSD, and depression.
  • The study looked at 49 male veterans to see if problems in their brain, specifically in the limbic system, relate to their likelihood of committing IPV.
  • Results showed that veterans with PTSD, depression, or other issues were more likely to engage in IPV, especially if they had more stress from war.
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This proof-of-concept study was to investigate the relationship between photobiomodulation (PBM) and neuromuscular control. The effects of concussion and repetitive head acceleration events (RHAEs) are associated with decreased motor control and balance. Simultaneous intranasal and transcranial PBM (itPBM) is emerging as a possible treatment for cognitive and psychological sequelae of brain injury with evidence of remote effects on other body systems.

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Background And Objectives: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a concern for US service members and veterans (SMV), leading to heterogeneous psychological and cognitive outcomes. We sought to identify neuropsychological profiles of mild TBI (mTBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among the largest SMV sample to date.

Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional baseline data from SMV with prior combat deployments enrolled in the ongoing Long-term Impact of Military-relevant Brain Injury Consortium-Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium prospective longitudinal study.

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Background And Purpose: Sport-specific training may improve postural control, while repetitive head acceleration events (RHAEs) may compromise it. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying postural control may contextualize changes due to training and RHAE. The goal of this study was to determine whether postural sway during the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) is related to white matter organization (WMO) in collegiate athletes.

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Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) provides researchers and clinicians with a powerful tool to examine functional connectivity across large-scale brain networks, with ever-increasing applications to the study of neurological disorders, such as traumatic brain injury (TBI). While rsfMRI holds unparalleled promise in systems neurosciences, its acquisition and analytical methodology across research groups is variable, resulting in a literature that is challenging to integrate and interpret. The focus of this narrative review is to address the primary methodological issues including investigator decision points in the application of rsfMRI to study the consequences of TBI.

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Article Synopsis
  • MRI is a key tool in researching diagnostic and prognostic markers after traumatic brain injury (TBI), particularly to understand mild TBI (mTBI), but findings are often inconsistent, highlighting the need for further study.
  • The study analyzed MRI data from 976 military veterans and service members to explore the links between imaging outcomes and clinical features of mTBI, using regression models to account for factors like age and sex.
  • Results indicated that while no major differences were found between those with and without mTBI history, blast-related mTBI showed significant brain volume reductions in certain areas, and multiple mTBIs correlated with specific MRI findings.
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Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant, global public health concern. Women, individuals with historically underrepresented identities, and disabilities are at high risk for IPV and tend to experience severe injuries. There has been growing concern about the risk of exposure to IPV-related head trauma, resulting in IPV-related brain injury (IPV-BI), and its health consequences.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the relationship between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and changes in brain connectivity, particularly in military personnel with different histories of TBI during combat versus non-combat situations.
  • It focuses on how functional connectivity (FC) in brain regions related to movement, like the basal ganglia, varies depending on the context of the injuries.
  • The results reveal that those with deployment-related mild TBI have increased connectivity in certain brain areas, while non-deployment mild TBI was linked to significant correlations with walking performance, suggesting different behavioral outcomes based on the circumstances of the injury.*
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Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine sex differences in recovery trajectories of assessments for sport-related concussion using Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (CARE) Consortium data.

Methods: National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes (N = 906; 61% female) from sex-comparable sports completed a pre-season baseline assessment and post-sport-related concussion assessments within 6 h of injury, 24-48 h, when they initiated their return to play progression, when they were cleared for unrestricted return to play, and 6 months post-injury. Assessments included the Standardized Assessment of Concussion, Balance Error Scoring System, Brief Symptom Inventory-18, Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT), Sport Concussion Assessment Tool-3 symptom evaluation, Clinical Reaction Time, King-Devick test, Vestibular Ocular Motor Screen, 12-item Short-Form Health Survey, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Satisfaction with Life Scale.

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Importance: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is known to cause widespread neural disruption in the cerebrum. However, less is known about the association of TBI with cerebellar structure and how such changes may alter executive functioning.

Objective: To investigate alterations in subregional cerebellum volume and cerebral white matter microstructure after pediatric TBI and examine subsequent changes in executive function.

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Article Synopsis
  • Female-specific concussion data in collegiate athletes is often lacking, prompting a study of initial injury characteristics and recovery outcomes in 1,393 female athletes across 30 US institutions.
  • The study recorded data on days to return to learn (6 days), initiate return to play (8 days), and unrestricted return to play (15 days), showing variations based on contact levels in sports.
  • Results indicated that most athletes experienced increased symptoms and slower recovery in various assessment areas after a concussion, contributing valuable insights for athletes, clinicians, and researchers.
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Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has been described in the United States (US) military service academy cadet population, but female-specific characteristics and recovery outcomes are poorly characterized despite sex being a confounder. Our objective was to describe female cadets' initial characteristics, assessment performance, and return-to-activity outcomes post-mTBI. Female cadets (n = 472) from the four US military service academies who experienced a mTBI completed standardized mTBI assessments from pre-injury to acute initial injury and unrestricted return-to-duty (uRTD).

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Context: Concussion research has primarily focused on sport-related mechanisms and excluded non-sport-related mechanisms. In adult populations, non-sport-related concussions (non-SRCs) demonstrated worse clinical outcomes compared with sport-related concussions (SRCs); however, investigations of non-SRCs in college-aged patients are limited.

Objectives: To examine clinical outcomes in collegiate athletes with non-SRCs compared with SRCs and explore sex differences in outcomes among collegiate athletes with non-SRCs.

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Sport-related concussion (SRC) affects an estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million Americans each year.

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Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), including physical, sexual, and psychological violence, aggression, and/or stalking, impacts overall health and can have lasting mental and physical health consequences. Substance misuse is common among individuals exposed to IPV, and IPV-exposed women (IPV-EW) are at-risk for transitioning from substance misuse to substance use disorder (SUD) and demonstrate greater SUD symptom severity; this too can have lasting mental and physical health consequences. Moreover, brain injury is highly prevalent in IPV-EW and is also associated with risk of substance misuse and SUD.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers in neuroscience are using Big Data to improve the reliability and replication of cognitive studies, focusing on memory testing.
  • They conducted a mega-analysis with data from 53 studies, involving over 10,500 individuals, employing methods to harmonize data and reduce variability across different sites.
  • Their findings show that large-scale data sharing can enhance the reproducibility of research in behavioral sciences, and they offer a free conversion tool for this purpose.
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Objective: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) commonly occur among military Service Members and Veterans and have heterogenous, but also overlapping symptom presentations, which often complicate the diagnoses of underlying impairments and development of effective treatment plans. Thus, we sought to examine whether the combination of whole brain gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) structural measures with neuropsychological performance can aid in the classification of military personnel with mTBI and PTSD.

Methods: Active-Duty US Service Members ( n = 156; 87.

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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in military populations can cause disruptions in brain structure and function, along with cognitive and psychological dysfunction. Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) can detect alterations in white matter (WM) microstructure, but few studies have examined brain asymmetry. Examining asymmetry in large samples may increase sensitivity to detect heterogeneous areas of WM alteration in mild TBI.

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Due to documented adverse events, understanding the prevalence of nutritional supplements commonly used by athletes is essential. This cross-sectional study used data from a web-based survey conducted in February-March 2022. Participants were Division I (DI) and Division III (DIII) student-athletes of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

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