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Traumatic brain injury usually occurs when the head slams against a windshield, the ground, or some other stationary object. The compression, twisting, and distortion of the brain inside the skull associated with this impact causes localized as well as widespread damage throughout the brain. Usually a period of unconsciousness, or at least altered consciousness, follows the trauma. In a severe brain injury, unconsciousness may last from hours to days or even weeks. In addition to altered consciousness, the individual almost never remembers the injury, the time immediately prior to it, or the several hours, sometimes days or weeks that follow it. This occurs because of direct damage to the brain tissue that controls learning and the establishment of new memory. Damage to the brain may continue after the impact if bleeding occurs, breathing stops, or the brain tissue swells. In mild brain injury, there may be only very brief alteration in consciousness, perhaps a feeling of being dazed. Even without significant loss of consciousness, the potential for having sustained brain injury is present, resulting in subtle cognitive and personality changes from normal, pre-injury behavior. Traumatic brain injury affects an estimated hundred thousand people every year in the United States. The immediate and long-lasting consequences create a medical, behavioral, social, and financial impact on almost all who experience such injury. Learning as much as possible about the consequences and the challenges of adjusting to brain injury is essential for coping with the condition. The National Resource Center for Traumatic Brain Injury at Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia provides a wealth of practical information for professionals, persons with brain injury, families, and others. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention provides factual information about traumatic brain injury and links to additional information. The Brain Injury Association is the parent national organization for the individual state affiliates. Resources and links to educational, research, treatment, and diagnostic information may be found here. Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems contains information about this U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research grant program and the seventeen treatment and research centers that participate. The International Brain Injury Association is another organization that aims to coordinate information dissemination about traumatic brain injury. To search for local support groups and additional information, including private practitioners and service providers, search Google.
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Copyright ©1999, 2000, 2001 Dennis P.
Swiercinsky, Ph.D. |
