Trial seeks best cure for brain injured

SAN ANTONIO (KXAN) - To the average onlooker, it looks like Pfc. Justin Strickland is doing learning exercises suited for a child.

“Chipmunk, lemur, penguin, lemur,” said Strickland, as he names the animals that appear on the computer screen in front of him.

Once he is done with that exercise, a series of numbers flash before him. He clicks the mouse each time he sees a multiple of three.

“You learn tricks to help you each time," he said.

The computer exercises may seem elementary, but for the 26-year-old Strickland, even the smallest, simplest tasks can be a challenge. It has been that way since the explosive projectile hit his vehicle while he was serving in Basra, Iraq.

“I don’t remember the actual incident itself. I just remember waking up in time to catch myself from falling off the top of the truck,” said Strickland.

From bruises on his legs to the cast on his arm, Strickland has plenty of physical injuries from the incident. But the injury he spends the most to rehabilitating is the one that cannot be bandaged.

“It was harder to verbalize what I was trying to say," he explained. "I saw an issue with remembering certain things.”

Strickland suffered a mild traumatic brain injury. Concussions and brain injuries suffered when explosions rattle the brain can lead to cognitive, memory, and thinking problems that last long after combat is done.

Treating such injuries has been problematic for doctors.

“It is our obligation to make them whole again,” said Dr. Douglas Cooper, a neuropsychologist who has been treating such injuries at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for eight years.

However, the best way to make soldiers and their minds whole again remains a mystery.

“The federal government felt we needed more studies that actually look at this,” said Cooper.

That is why Strickland spends 10 hours a week at a computer watching animal pictures flash by and other seemingly simple assignments.

“It gets you to focus on the same task for more than a few seconds at a time,” said Strickland, who is one of 180 patients taking part in the Study of Cognitive Rehabilitation Effectiveness, or SCORE, trial.

The SCORE trial is one of the studies the federal government hopes will give doctors a better idea on how to effectively treat brain injuries.

Patients in the trial will receive four different arms of treatment, but not everyone will receive the same treatments. By varying the type of treatments, the trial will provide doctors with information on which treatments work best for which patients.

Treatments include individual therapy, group therapy, computer exercises and behavioral health exercises.

Stickland feels the treatment he has received has worked well.

“It has helped me ignore the voices in my head. I can carry a conversation while doing (the exercises) when before I had to sit here intensely focused on what was going on," he said.

The trial will take place over the next three years at Brooke Army Medical Center and Cooper hopes it will result in a more trustworthy treatment for soldiers who have suffered brain injuries.

“We want these individuals to go back to being productive soldiers, marines, husbands," Cooper said.

That is what Strickland hopes that will be the payoff of all the hours he spent behind the computer.

“The goal is to go back to my unit and then go back to school full-time to get my degree in music therapy," he said.