Exploring the differences between men and women with traumatic brain injuries

The University of Cincinnati's Brandon Foreman, MD, joined a panel discussion on WVXU's Cincinnati Edition discussing current knowledge and the need for further research into the differences between men and women experiencing traumatic brain injuries (TBI).

Foreman said TBIs can be thought of as a "pandemic worldwide," and millions of people in the United States are diagnosed each year. However, there is still a need for more research and clarity on incidences of TBI in women. 

Rachel Ramirez, director of health and disability programs and founder of the Center on Partner-Inflicted Brain Injury, Ohio Domestic Violence Network, told WVXU that survivors are rarely formally diagnosed with a TBI after intimate partner violence. She noted that men are often diagnosed following sporting events in public with many people around, but domestic violence occurs in private.

"What we know from epidemiologic studies is that men comprise about two-thirds of the overall epidemiological burden of TBI even though we know that women probably are underreported in a lot of these different studies," said Foreman, associate professor and an associate director of neurocritical care research in the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine in UC’s College of Medicine and a UC Health neurocritical care physician.

Additionally, there is a need for further research into differences in symptoms between men and women. 

"There’s been a lot of speculation that there may be some underlying biological factors that contribute both neuroprotection in some cases related to hormonal differences between men and women, as well as potentially factors contributing to worse outcome over time," he said. "Things like societal norms that dictate responsibilities that women have that they’re much less capable of keeping up with after a traumatic brain injury that men might not report, even though the disability is the same if not worse for women."

Listen to the Cincinnati Edition segment.

Featured illustration at top of neurons. Photo/imaginima/iStock.