A new study shows that the female hormone progesterone could help treat traumatic head injuries. The study, published in The Annals of Emergency Medicine, was conducted with the input of community leaders, in part to avoid comparisons with the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiments.
FARAI CHIDEYA, host: This is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Farai Chideya. We'll get to our regular Round Table in just a moment, but first a story about a new study from Emory University in Atlanta that shows promising results but brings up long-time ethical issues.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: Researchers found that giving progesterone, a female steroid hormone, to victims of serious head injuries cuts the risk of long-term brain damage. But most of the people with these kinds of serious head injuries cannot consent to treatment. The study appears in the latest issue of The Annals of Emergency Medicine, out today. I spoke with NPR health-policy correspondent Joanne Silberner, who's covering the story.</s>JOANNE SILBERNER: Basically anybody who came into Grady Memorial Hospital's Emergency Room during a certain period of time, it's the only trauma center of its kind in that area, so it was people - anybody from the community, really.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: Tell us about the community.</s>JOANNE SILBERNER: Well, Grady is located in inner-city Atlanta. It has mostly a poor, black clientele, but because of the trauma issue, anybody in any part of Atlanta who had any kind of problem with a serious head injury ended up there. So this - what they were doing was actually to everyone, but their concern was the black community because of the history of Tuskegee.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: The Tuskegee experiments went on without permission, without knowledge. They were harmful to the patients. So what did the researchers do if they got people in comas, for example, who couldn't consent to being part of a study?</s>JOANNE SILBERNER: Well, they had reason to believe that the female hormone progesterone would help them, but they don't have proof. That's what they wanted to look for. They couldn't ask the people coming in - the people coming in were pretty incoherent. They did decide that they were going to ask all these people's families, and they waited until they got family members, which actually made the experiment tougher, because the sooner you use this drug, it looks like, the better it is.</s>JOANNE SILBERNER: But the other thing that they did - they went to the community. They went to pastors, they went to the religious community, they went to the brain-injured community; and they said to everybody look, we want to do this. What do you think? If you say you don't like it, we're not going to do it in Atlanta.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: So when they went to the community, I'm sure there were some people who were very much pro this research and some people who were against it. What were some of the objections?</s>JOANNE SILBERNER: Well, the people I've talked to said that they needed to hear more, but once they heard more, they actually dropped their objections. I haven't found much resistance. Their initial objections were: You're going to give a female hormone to young, black men? You know, what are you trying to do to them? They talked over the research with the researchers. One man I talked to had a Ph.D. in psychology. There was a fair amount of scientific knowledge among the people they talked to, and they took a look and said you know what? There's nothing for these patients. You know, when you come in with a traumatic brain injury, lots of things have been tried, nothing seems to work. You know, you support the person as best you can. This was something that was potentially helpful, and they said you know what? We think this is as good as it's going to get for this, so go ahead and try it.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: Before we let you go, just explain a little bit about the science. A female hormone, progesterone, given to men. Why would they even think to do this?</s>JOANNE SILBERNER: Well, it's a steroid, and steroids can reduce swelling. There was information from animal studies that it was what they call neuro-protective. It protects the nervous system. In the body, the hormone does seem to protect tissues when there are problems, so the thought is gee, maybe it can protect brain tissue, as well. And again, they had that animal data that's promising. They decided to give it a try, and actually they were right.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: That was NPR health-policy correspondent Joanne Silberner. Thanks for joining us.</s>JOANNE SILBERNER: Thank you.