A Breakthrough in Treatment for Brain Trauma?

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is one of the signature wounds of war. It's often caused by being too close to an explosion or blast, and its effects can be devastating, resulting in physical, cognitive, emotional and even behavioral problems.

A new therapy, however, is achieving remarkable results in TBI patients, all using hormones.

Dr. Mark Gordon developed this hormone therapy after he discovered that TBIs can cause hormonal deficiencies.

These deficiencies can result in symptoms that include depression, outbursts of anger, anxiety, mood swings, and many others.

Gordon says that many veterans suffering from hormonal deficiencies are misdiagnosed and instead treated for depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

"If an individual is on antidepressants and they're still feeling depressed, it means that something else is missing. That common missing factor is one of the neurosteroids in the brain," he explained.

"Those are hormones that are produced in the brain, that because of trauma -- like an explosion, blast trauma, or car accident -- can lead to a deficiency of these hormones in the brain which regulate how we feel. By replacing them we feel better," Gordon said.

CBN News spoke with Andrew Marr, a retired Army Special Forces Green Beret who is a patient of Dr. Gordon. He says the changes in his life since beginning treatment have been remarkable. Click play for more of his story.

Gordon's therapy is able to restore hormone levels to their pre-injury levels, which results in the recovery of many functions that were lost. However, it is a therapy that many patients will require for life.

"If you're a diabetic and deficient in insulin, are you going to need insulin for the rest of your life?" Gordon asked. "Yes. If you're deficient in these hormones, the probability is that you're going to need to be on these hormones the rest of your life."

"We work to prepare the patient for that inevitability at the very beginning of treatment," he said.

Veterans with traumatic brain injury, or their family members, can visit Gordon's website, www.tbimedlegal.com to set up initial lab testing and find out more information.