Angela Colantonio

Probing long-term consequences of traumatic brain injury

When the human brain is injured by an accident, a stroke or some other disorder, the results can be devastating- loss of speech, memory and a host of other mental and physical problems.

Over the last 15 years, Dr. Angela Colantonio, Senior Research Scientist at Toronto Rehab, has studied the effects of aging and injury on the human brain. She has done research on stroke, dementia and, most recently, the long-term consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Dr. Colantonio has identified new predictors of stroke incidence and recovery in older adults and, through national studies, has investigated the support needs of people caring for family members who have dementia. She also conducted one of the largest studies into long-term outcomes following traumatic brain injury in the United States.

Some of her results have been unexpected. For instance, mild TBI can cause far more symptoms than thought, even years after the initial injury. "We have also documented physical health problems long after TBI occurred," she says. "As an example, a large proportion of people with TBI report having arthritis and movement problems years after the injury. We're not sure why this is yet."

While TBI is still associated with higher-than-average rates of early death, technological advances over the last few decades have improved survival rates.

"This makes it even more important to understand the long-term consequences of brain injury," explains Dr. Colantonio, who holds the Saunderson Family Chair in Acquired Brain Injury Research at Toronto Rehab.

"We need to know more so we can provide more appropriate services for people with TBI. We also need to learn how to prevent complications and reduce the risk of premature death in this group."

The risk is very real. People with moderate to severe TBI are about twice as likely to die prematurely as comparable individuals without TBI. Dr. Colantonio is now studying predictors and causes of early death in brain-injured people. Her research may ultimately help health professionals identify and treat high-risk TBI patients.

While treatments for TBI are slowly improving, the best strategy, of course, is to avoid brain injury altogether. To learn how to reduce the frequency of TBI in the workplace, Dr. Colantonio is studying the factors linked to these devastating injuries.

She is also looking at ways to harness the power of the Internet to help brain-injured people. "We hope to be able to put people with TBI in touch with appropriate health care providers over the Internet," she explains. "This would be very useful to some individuals, especially those living in remote communities."

Dr. Colantonio began her research career by investigating stroke, but was urged by her mentor to examine the association between TBI and dementia. She then became interested in long-term outcomes of TBI and has been studying this topic ever since.

"I've been blessed with many opportunities during my career," she says. "Now, I look forward to 'giving back' through my research. I think the results of these studies will truly be helpful to some people with TBI and their families."

Curriculum Vitae