Effects of dopaminergic combination therapy for frontal lobe dysfunction in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation

Traumatic brain injury poses significant and diverse challenges to rehabili tation efforts. Neurobehavioural deficits represent a particularly difficul t barrier to rehabilitative progress and societal reintegration. Early stud ies have identified dopaminergic drugs such as amantadine, bromocriptine an d sinemet as potentially assistive in countering these deficits. To date, s ide effect profiles have been relatively benign, noted most frequently in s mall-scale case trials. The case of a 40-year-old patient with bilateral fr ontal traumatic brain injuries, and previous arteriovenous malformation (AV M) bleed with significant ataxia, dysarthria and neurobehavioural deficits is presented. This ions range study demonstrates, through multiple varied d osing schedules, a trade off between the benefits and side effects of dopam inergic therapy, with implications for a larger brain injury population.