Therapies for Brain Injury Volume 2: Quality of Life and Functional Enhancement in Chronic Brain Injury

Significant research efforts have focused on neuroprotection and neurorepair in the acute and subacute phases following brain injury. However, the chronic phase of brain injury presents a distinct therapeutic landscape where the primary goals shift from tissue salvage and neural regeneration to maximizing residual function, enhancing adaptive compensatory mechanisms, and improving overall quality of life. After stabilization of the primary injury, patients often face long-term challenges that extend beyond the primary neurological impairments to encompass cognitive, behavioral, sensory-motor, and psychosocial domains. Current rehabilitation paradigms, while valuable, frequently reach therapeutic plateaus, leaving patients and caregivers seeking additional interventions that can provide meaningful functional improvements. Moreover, the burden of chronic brain injury extends beyond the individual patient to encompass family caregivers, healthcare systems, and society at large, creating an urgent need for innovative approaches that can enhance functional capacity and reduce dependency. This Research Topic seeks to:• Advance the therapeutic armamentarium available for managing chronic brain injury sequelae;• Identify novel targets and mechanisms for enhancing compensatory brain function;• Foster interdisciplinary collaboration among neurologists, rehabilitation specialists, pharmacologists, engineers, and social scientists;• Provide evidence-based guidance for clinicians managing this complex patient population;• Ultimately improve independence, participation, and quality of life for individuals living with chronic brain injury consequences.Recent advances in pharmacology, neuromodulation, assistive technologies, and integrative therapeutic strategies offer promising avenues for addressing the multifaceted needs of this patient population. However, these interventions remain underexplored and inadequately integrated into standard clinical practice. By focusing on the lived experience and functional needs of patients in the chronic phase, this Research Topic complements existing neuroprotection and neurorepair research, addressing a critical gap in the continuum of brain injury care.This Research Topic aims to gather cutting-edge research on therapeutic interventions that focus on optimizing the function of remaining neural networks, enhancing compensatory mechanisms, managing secondary complications, and ultimately improving the quality of life for individuals living with chronic consequences of brain injury. We welcome original research articles, reviews, clinical trials, and translational studies addressing the following themes:• Pharmacological interventions for symptom management and functional enhancement, i.e. pharmacological management of epilepsy, post-injury spasticity, movement disorders, and chronic pain, treatments for neuropsychiatric sequelae, cognitive enhancers and nootropics;• Non-pharmacological neuromodulation and stimulation, i.e. transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), deep brain stimulation for refractory symptoms, vagal nerve stimulation and other peripheral neuromodulation approaches, neurofeedback and brain-computer interfaces;• Assistive technologies and adaptive devices: smart prosthetics and exoskeletons, communication devices and augmentative technologies, virtual reality and gamification;• Integrative and multimodal approaches, i.e. physical exercise protocols and their neurobiological effects, mind-body interventions (mindfulness, meditation, yoga) for symptom management, combined pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies. Topic editors: Luigi Manni, Marzia Soligo, Erica BERRETTA, Leon Morales-Quezada, Antonio Chiaretti Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/76481/therapies-for-brain-injury-volume-2-quality-of-life-and-functional-enhancement-in-chronic-brain-injury