Spinal Cord Injury Programs Reviewed by NeuroInvestment

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Spinal Cord Injury Programs Reviewed by NeuroInvestment
RYE, NH -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/11/2005 -- NI Research today announced the release of the April issue of NeuroInvestment, reviewing the development of novel therapies for the treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI). In the United States, 11,000 individuals suffer paralysis each year secondary to spinal cord trauma, with a total of 200,000 US patients. The number has grown in the wake of improved post-SCI supportive treatment. With advances in acute care now producing a survival rate of more than 95%, this is a disorder which means, for most, a lifetime of disability. Navigating even the most routine of days is a tremendous trial for the victims of SCI. What makes this fate particularly burdensome is that they remain cognitively intact, trapped within bodies that no longer respond to their commands and needs. It is reminiscent of ALS in this respect, but with one key difference; it is a transformation which takes place in a calamitous second, not years of slow exsanguination. The functional loss takes on a kind of hideous irony for those who suffer spinal cord injuries as a result of sports activities, such as football, diving, or ice hockey. 80% of SCI victims in the US are male, consistent with the association between testosterone and risk taking. Lives which often are oriented to physical activity are suddenly shorn of this core capacity. 70% of those suffering spinal cord injuries in the US do so as a result of a motor vehicle accident or athletics, the young (60% are under age 30) face a lifetime of struggle without much realistic hope of regaining anything approaching full functionality. There is a cornucopia of other functional disabilities and consequences which are also destructive and demoralizing. Patients with SCI often suffer painful muscle spasms, neuropathic pain, bladder disorders and infections, and are vulnerable to psychiatric sequelae, particularly depression. Most do not have the emotional and financial resources of a Christopher Reeve, and thus are more likely to sink into despair. Because of the intensity and duration of care required, SCI care costs more than $8 billion per year in the United States alone.

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