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资料摘自:王丽娟译
In a small building in Marrero, Louisiana, patients in a clear capsule breathe pure oxygen.
在美国刘易斯安纳州马雷罗市的一座小型建筑物中，一个透明舱室中的患者正在吸着纯氧。
The procedure, known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, uses a pressurized chamber to help scuba divers overcome the bends. But Dr. Paul G. Harch offers it as aconcussiontreatment.
这项疗程称为高压氧治疗，主要是使用加压室协助深水潜水员克服减压症（潜水员病）问题。但保罗．G．哈奇是用它来进行脑震荡的治疗。
One patient, Rashada Parks, said that she had struggled with mood swings ever since she fell and hit her head more than three years ago.Antidepressantshadn’thelped her. But after 40 hourlong treatments, or dives, her symptoms have subsided.
病患蕾莎达．帕克斯说，3年多前她跌伤头部后，一直为情绪阴睛不定所苦。抗忧郁药物对她并没有帮助。然而在经过40小时的治疗，或称为潜水后，她的症状减轻了。
Three studies run at a cost to American taxpayer of about $70 million have all found that the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen reported by patients may have resulted from a placebolike effect.But advocates of the treatment recently persuadedAmericanlawmakers to spend more money investigating whether the studies were flawed.
花费美国纳税人7000万美元的3项研究均发现，病患所说的高压氧好处可能只是类似安慰剂的效果。但这项治疗的倡议者最近说服了美国国会，同意再投注一些经费去查明前述这些研究是否有瑕疵。
A growing industry has developed around concussions. An estimated 1.7 million Americans are treated every year after suffering concussions from falls, car accidents, sports injuries and other causes. While the vast majority quickly recover with rest, a small percentage of patients experience lingering effects a year or longer afterward.
Along with memory issues, symptoms can include headaches,dizzinessand vision and balance problems.
研究脑震荡的产业正在持续成长中。每年约有170万美国人因为跌倒、车祸、运动伤害及其它原因所产生的脑震荡而接受治疗。尽管绝大多数的人可在休息后复元，却有极小比例的病患在1年或更久后，仍有挥之不去的一些症状。除了记忆问题外，其他症状还包括头痛、晕眩、视力和平衡问题。
Over the last decade, the United States Defense Department has spent more than $800 million onbrain injuryresearch. And as people become more aware of the debilitating long-term consequences of repeated concussions, businesses have been chasing salable solutions.
10年来，美国国防部已花费逾8亿美元从事脑损伤研究。随着人们越来越意识到反复性脑震荡可能带来身体衰弱的长期后果，许多公司一直在寻找具有市场价值的解决方法。
The search for ways to treat and prevent concussions has spawned screening tools, helmet sensors and brain imaging devices. But as the industry booms, medical experts are raising concerns that it is a business where belief frequently outruns fact.
在寻找治疗和预防脑震荡疗方之际，筛检工具、头盔传感器和脑成像装置也应运而生。但随着这项产业蓬勃发展，医学专家也表达了他们的关切，忧心这项产业经常是信念胜于事实。
Not long ago, the field of brain injury research was small. Little attention was paid to concussion, which is also called mildtraumatic brain injury. That changed after reports showed that hundreds of thousands of American service members were returning from Iraq and Afghanistan impaired by concussions caused by battlefield blasts and accidents.
直到不久前，脑损伤领域的研究仍然不多。很少人注意到也称为轻度创伤性脑损伤的脑震荡。但情况有了改变，因为报告显示，从伊拉克和阿富汗返回的美国军人有数十万人承受战场爆炸、意外等引起的脑震荡之苦。
In 2007, Congress allocated $600 million for research and treatment, splitting the funds between traumatic brain injury andpost-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
2007年，美国国会拨款6亿美元作为研究与治疗之用，这些经费分别用于研究创伤性脑损伤以及简写为PTSD的创伤后压力症候群。
Dr. David X. Cifu, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond who also works for the Veterans Affairs Department, said that the government funds spawned a research feeding frenzy. “It was a small field that got amazingly large because a lot of people were making stuff up and claiming things,” Dr. Cifu said.
里奇蒙弗吉尼亚联邦大学教授，也在退伍军人事务部任职的戴维．X．西夫博士说，ZF的经费引发研究发表潮。西夫说：「它是很小的领域，却变得大得惊人，因为许多人开始无中生有，声称获致某些结果。」
Some specialists said they believed the military’s approach to concussions suffered from a basic problem.
有些专家说，他们认为军方对脑震荡的处理方式有一个根本的问题。
While agreement exists on the symptoms that define a concussion at the time when one occurs, a similar definition did not exist to describe what happens after a concussion, including how the injury’s symptoms change over time.
尽管医界对脑震荡发生时，用来界定脑震荡的那些症状具有一致观点，但对于用来形容脑震荡后发生的事，包括随着时间改变，这项伤害的症状会出现何种改变等，观点却并不一致。
In addition, many soldiers who are diagnosed with a mild brain injury also have PTSD, a condition with symptoms similar to those associated with a concussion.
此外，被诊断出有轻微脑损伤的许多军人，同时也出现创伤后压力症候群，而后者的症状和脑震荡类似。
A few years ago, a major producer of football helmets, Riddell, announced that it was on the trail of a way to reduce injuries by using electronic impact sensors to monitor head blows.
几年前，美式足球头盔大生产商「里德尔」宣布，该公司正在研究利用电子碰撞传感器监控头部撞击，藉以达到降低伤害的目的。
The National Football League was so enthusiastic about the potential that it studied the performance of impact sensors in the Riddell helmet in eight N.F.L. games. But the league ended the experiment, saying the data produced was too crude to be of value.
美国「国家美式足球联盟」非常热衷这项研究的潜力，在联盟的8场赛事中从事这项撞击传感器功效的研究。但联盟已对这项实验喊停，表示传感器产生的数据过于粗糙，没有价值。
The end of the N.F.L’s field test, however, hasn’t dimmed enthusiasm for sensors among coaches and parents.
联盟的实地测试虽已结束，教练和父母对传感器的热情并未被浇熄。
In the fall, players on several college football teams will wear mouth guards equipped with sensors made by i1 Biometrics.
今年秋天，数支大学美式足球队将戴着配备有传感器的护口器上场，传感器由「伊尔生物识别技术」制造。
As with much in the concussion business, experts are still uncertain whether the data will result in fewer concussions or simply create statistical noise.
和脑震荡产业的多数公司一样，专家仍不确定这些数据会带来减少脑震荡的结果，或徒然制造一些统计上的噪音。
Medical experts say that in some ways, the search for new approaches has returned to the starting line. A concussion expert with the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, Dr. David W. Dodick, said he believed a cheap nutritional supplement, N-acetylcysteine, could help treat concussion symptoms, and he hoped to study it.
医学专家说，就某些方面而言，寻找治疗脑震荡新方法的研究又回到原始的起跑在线。亚历桑那州凤凰城梅约诊所脑震荡专家，戴维．W．杜迪克说，他相信一种廉价的营养补充，亦即N-乙半胱氨酸，有助治疗脑震荡症状，他希望能做这项研究。
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