Acute Spinal Cord Injury: Pharmacological Interventions

Researchers are wary of giving people false hopes that a magic bullet for curing spinal cord injury is just around the corner. However, with accelerating progress in scientific research, there is renewed vitality and growing optimism that, with continued effort, the problems of spinal cord injury will be overcome. Although many years of intensive study have contributed to the development of the prostheses now being tested, they are really the first generation of useful devices. Better materials and enhanced technology can refine these devices to provide much better function. Rehabilitation techniques can greatly improve patients' health and quality of life by helping them learn to use their remaining abilities. Studies of problems that spinal cord injury patients experience, such as spasticity, muscle weakness, and impaired motor coordination, are leading to new strategies that may overcome these challenges. Overcoming spinal cord injuries will require general progress in many fields of neuroscience as well as specific studies in animal models of spinal cord injury and in patients themselves.