Micronutrient Treatment of Emotional Dyscontrol Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Bonnie J. Kaplan, Caroline Leaney, and Ekaterina Tsatsko
Annals of Psychiatry and Mental Health

Abstract

Introduction: Emotional dyscontrol following traumatic brain injury (TBI) impairs social relationships and employability. Micronutrients (minerals, vitamins) stabilize emotional lability in psychiatric patients, and various individual nutrients have been used to treat experimental brain injury in laboratory animals in the acute phase. However, the current case report appears to be the first documentation of micronutrients resulting in normalization of emotion regulation in a long-standing brain injury in a human.

Case presentation: A broad-spectrum formula of micronutrients was evaluated in a 35-year-old male who had incurred a severe TBI eight years previously. Resolution of most post-TBI symptoms was achieved during those eight years, but not his episodic loss of emotional control, which psychiatrists evaluated as being permanent. The trial of micronutrients began after five weeks of baseline symptom monitoring with a mood stability scale. By three months mood stability had improved markedly according to data submitted by two raters (the patient and his clinician) who were blind to each other’s evaluations. Data collection continued for one year, showing significant improvement (p<.0001), at which time the patient reported that his emotional control had returned to his pre-TBI level. The improvements led to his establishing his own business and improving his family relationships.

Conclusions: Micronutrient treatment resulted in resolution of this patient’s longstanding post-TBI emotional dyscontrol. Broadspectrum micronutrient formulas are showing benefit for the treatment of mood lability in various types of psychiatric patients; this report indicates there is also potential value in using them for the emotional dyscontrol found in post-TBI patients.