Overview

The after-effects of brain injury are often long-term.

A brain injury can be caused by trauma, such as a blunt force from the outside, or come from an event within the brain, like a stroke.

There are many ways the brain can be injured from the outside, such as falls, accidents or even deliberate violence.

Haemorrhages can happen suddenly, for example, from an aneurysm, or be the end result of ageing and illnesses such as high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus.

Some brain injuries take place slowly over time, such as due to tumours and hydrocephalus.

Brain injury symptoms are unique to the way the injury happened, where in the brain and to whom. Recovery is often incomplete and often the problems most difficult to manage are psychiatric complications such as personality change, emotional disorders, aggression, fatigue, anxiety and psychosis. Cognitive function is almost always affected.

Careful and thorough assessment by an experienced neuropsychiatrist, such as myself, is vital as part of multi-disciplinary care.

For more information from Headway click on the button below and also look at the particular section on brain injury on this website https://www.headway.org.uk/