Slow wave activity moderates the association between new learning and traumatic brain injury severity.

Study Objectives: Sleep-wake complaints and difficulties in making new learning are among the most persistent and challenging long-term sequelea following moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Yet, it is unclear whether, and to what extent, sleep characteristics during the chronic stage of TBI contribute to sleep-wake and cognitive complaints. We aimed to characterize sleep architecture in chronic moderate to severe TBI adults and assess whether non-rapid eye movement slow wave activity (SWA) is associated to next day performance in episodic memory tasks according to TBI severity.

Sleep spindles are resilient to extensive white matter deterioration.

Sleep spindles are an essential part of non-rapid eye movement sleep, notably involved in sleep consolidation, cognition, learning and memory. These oscillatory waves depend on an interaction loop between the thalamus and the cortex, which relies on a structural backbone of thalamo-cortical white matter tracts. It is still largely unknown if the brain can properly produce sleep spindles when it underwent extensive white matter deterioration in these tracts, and we hypothesized that it would affect sleep spindle generation and morphology.

Brain white matter damage and its association with neuronal synchrony during sleep.

The restorative function of sleep partly relies on its ability to deeply synchronize cerebral networks to create large slow oscillations observable with EEG. However, whether a brain can properly synchronize and produce a restorative sleep when it undergoes massive and widespread white matter damage is unknown. Here, we answer this question by testing 23 patients with various levels of white matter damage secondary to moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries (ages 18-56; 17 males, six females, 11-39 months post-injury) and compared them to 27 healthy subjects of similar age and sex.

Towards a better understanding of increased sleep duration in the chronic phase of moderate to severe traumatic brain injury: an actigraphy study.

Introduction: Most adults with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) report persistent sleep-wake disturbances. Whether these complaints are either associated with abnormal sleep-wake patterns or can be explained by TBI-related characteristics is unclear. The present study aimed at characterising the subjective and objective sleep-wake patterns in TBI adults by taking into consideration the influence of TBI severity, common comorbidities and psychoactive medication.

Reprint of: Efficacy, tolerability, and safety of non-pharmacological therapies for chronic pain: An umbrella review on various CAM approaches.

Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies may be used as a non-pharmacological approach to chronic pain management. While hundreds of trials about individual CAM modality have been conducted, a comprehensive overview of their results is currently lacking for pain clinicians and researchers.

Aim: This umbrella review synthesized the quality of meta-analytic evidence supporting the efficacy, tolerability and safety of CAM therapies for the management of chronic pain.

Efficacy, tolerability, and safety of non-pharmacological therapies for chronic pain: An umbrella review on various CAM approaches.

Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies may be used as a non-pharmacological approach to chronic pain management. While hundreds of trials about individual CAM modality have been conducted, a comprehensive overview of their results is currently lacking for pain clinicians and researchers.

Aim: This umbrella review synthesized the quality of meta-analytic evidence supporting the efficacy, tolerability and safety of CAM therapies for the management of chronic pain.

Individuals with pain need more sleep in the early stage of mild traumatic brain injury.

Objective: Hypersomnia is frequently reported after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), but its cause(s) remain elusive. This study examined sleep/wake activity after mTBI and its association with pain, a comorbidity often associated with insomnia.

Methods: Actigraphy recording was performed for 7 ± 2 consecutive days in 56 individuals at one month post-mTBI (64% male; 38 ± 12 years), 24 individuals at one year post-mTBI (58% male; 44 ± 11years), and in 20 controls (50% male; 37 ± 12 years).