Drugs and brain injury

Matt Conroy tests a patient’s memory.

Research by a Macquarie University postgraduate student is finding that loss of memory in a patient with a brain injury may be a result of the drugs they are taking for pain relief rather than the injury itself.

Based at Westmead Hospital, Matt Conroy is measuring performance on a scale which estimates the length of post-traumatic amnesia. He is writing up the results as a 50,000-word thesis.

About the study

“First we give patients a written sheet with 12 questions, such as the day of the week and their date of birth,” says Conroy. Over four days of testing, they’re asked to remember to the following day things such as the tester’s name and pictures on specially-prepared cards."

Conroy has already assessed about three-quarters of the 50 patients involved in the study. All of these are taking narcotic analgesics, which are routinely used to provide relief for acute pain following a traumatic accident. These drugs, however, may also produce problems with memory similar to a traumatic brain injury, leading to difficulties in evaluating the presence and severity of brain injury.

Conroy’s study is designed to determine whether prescribed narcotic analgesics can result in either amnesia or a measurable impairment in learning and retention. Greater accuracy in measurement will increase the likelihood of a successful rehabilitation process for the patient.

So far, six of the patients have scored in the ‘impaired’ range on the memory test. They would previously have been recorded as having sustained a brain injury when in fact no such injury has occurred. The analgesic group is also scoring significantly lower than controls on a learning task. It’s already clear that Conroy’s hypothesis is right.

A collegial atmosphere

Conroy says the project is enjoyable for a number of reasons.

“There are other students there, with projects related to mine,” he says. “We can compare notes and ask each other questions. And we’re helping out the Hospital. It’s a really collegial atmosphere.”

Honours student Kia Pffaelie has recently joined Conroy’s project to explore the influence of medical, psychological, drug and alcohol history on learning and memory in this group of patients. She will write up the results for her own thesis.

“Most patients are happy to participate in my study,” Conroy adds. He is mainly dealing with young men such as himself, many injured in car accidents. He also finds that long-term collaboration between staff at Macquarie University and Westmead, such as the PhD work done by his supervisor Dr Jenny Batchelor, has smoothed the way for his own work.

For more information, contact Conroy’s supervisor, Dr Jenny Batchelor, at Jenny.Batchelor@psy.mq.edu.au

More Health stories here