Therapy of traumatic brain injury by modern agents and traditional Chinese medicine

Chunzhu Wei, Jingbo Wang, Jintao Yu, Qing Tang, Xinjie Liu, Yanlong Zhang, Dandan Cui, Yanqiong Zhu, Yanli Mei, Yanjun Wang, Wenzhu Wang

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of disability and death, and the social burden of mortality and morbidity caused by TBI is significant. Under the influence of comprehensive factors, such as social environment, lifestyle, and employment type, the incidence of TBI continues to increase annually. Current pharmacotherapy of TBI mainly focuses on symptomatic supportive treatment, aiming to reduce intracranial pressure, ease pain, alleviate irritability, and fight infection. In this study, we summarized numerous studies covering the use of neuroprotective agents in different animal models and clinical trials after TBI. However, we found that no drug has been approved as specifically effective for the treatment of TBI. Effective therapeutic strategies for TBI remain an urgent need, and attention is turning toward traditional Chinese medicine. We analyzed the reasons why existing high-profile drugs had failed to show clinical benefits and offered our views on the research of traditional herbal medicine for treating TBI.