One of the goals of rehabilitation of patients suffering from brain injury is to get them back to a productive lifestyle. The success of rehabilitation programs is often measured by this quality, as a productive lifestyle is very important for people who have suffered a brain injury. If people who have suffered brain damage are unable to return to work and other social activities such as partaking in sports they are often prone to bouts of depression and may suffer from lack of esteem.
Rehabilitation
The rehabilitation of people who have suffered brain damage is often overlooked by health professionals. It has been found that people who have suffered traumatic brain injury are much less supported socially than people who have undergone other major injuries in their life such as those relating to spinal injuries. With regards to younger persons it is paramount that the health social services take a greater interest in helping the person suffering from the brain injury to get a job and a decent education. There is a strong belief that for people suffering from a brain injury that their own actions can alter the outcome of a situation, therefore with the right sort of encouragement it is possible that many patients may be able to help themselves to a limited extent.Â
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Posted in rehabilitation February 20th, 2006 by Deano | 1 comment
In a recent paper by the Cohen group from Tuebingen in the journal neuro-rehabilitation neural repair, differences in functional activation maps of patients suffering from traumatic brain injury was analysed. They carried out their investigation by performing functional magnetic resonance imaging in cross section. This enabled the blood oxygenation response of people suffering from traumatic brain injury to be measured in cortical motor areas.
Defected motor systems
Thirty four people were tested who had defects in their motor systems by getting them to squeeze their hands. The patients were tested three months after their brain damage and the investigation was followed up four months later. It was found that patients who were suffering from brain injuries had a reduced imaging response when squeezing their hands in the region of the primary sensorimotor cortex, in the contralateral dorsal premotor cortex and bilaterally in supplementary areas of motor. The experiment determined that activation patterns did not show convincing differences across lesion types, this is possibly a consequence of small sampling size or bilateral damage. Interestingly it was determined that deeper shearing lesions resulted in severe motor destruction. The investigation also determined that the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging can be of great prognostic value. Â
Posted in traumatic brain injury February 16th, 2006 by Deano | 1 comment
Aims of Brain Injury Review
The aim of this website is to take an in depth look at the current research that is occurring in the brain injury field today. First I would like to give you a little overview into how brain damage may occur. Typically between forty and fifty percent of all injuries to the head occur through traffic accidents. Mishaps that occur at either at work or industrial accidents account for around twenty five percent of damage to the brain, while the remaining injuries are usually a result of assaults or related to sports. With regards to Children around twenty percent of brain damage is of a consequence of cycling accidents, much of these could be avoided by wearing cycle safety helmets.
Kinds of Brain Injuries
There are many different kinds of damage that occur, a minor injury such as may occur when one bangs there head against a wall is by far the most frequent kind, and accounts for around 75% of brain damage. This sort of accident may result in complications such as head aches, loss of memory, tiredness, depression and nausea.
Moderate brain injuries include those that nay occur when a person loses consciousness for a prolonged period, typically between fifteen minutes and six hours. These can result in difficulty in thinking and loss of attention span, dizziness, tiredness and may even result in the sufferer becoming irritable.
Traumatic brain injury involves damage to the fibrous nervous system in the centre of the brain. This can lead to great problems such as loss of use of motor functions, impairment of speech, personality change and severe memory loss.
It is hoped to that this site will be able to keep you up to date with all the latest developments that are occurring in this field.
Posted in Brain talk February 15th, 2006 by Deano | 1 comment