Everything affects the outcome after a TBI -- from the severity of the injury to the ongoing support of family, friends, and community.
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In terms of emotional and behavioral changes that occur, again, most brain injuries
in a traumatic sense occur affecting the frontal lobes and the temporal lobes.
And your frontal lobes are the part of the brain that have what we call the
pleasure center and the initiation center and the attention-distractability center.
And then the temporal lobes have a lot to do with memory as well as emotional
control. So you're hitting those areas or you end up isolating those areas from
being able to do things. So a number of kids will be more apathetic than anything else,
where they'll just sit there like a bump on a log and not really do anything. They tend
not to get recognized particularly well in school because they're not a troublemaker
because they're just sitting there. Of course, they don't do very well at school,
but they're just sitting there. Then there's the group where their ability to
stay on task is quite impaired, and so they'll get up and be fidgety and wander around the room
and not stay on task and get distracted by the bird flying by the window, the noise outside,
all kinds of things like that, and again don't pay attention enough to know what's going on,
may not even remember--because they haven't paid attention--that they were being told
to do a certain task. So they don't even know to do it.
And other kids find them kind of distracting. Teachers really tend not to like kids to
do that, so then they get disciplined a lot.
The third group that have a lot of trouble controlling their emotions--and we all have
trouble controlling our emotions to a certain extent, but their ability is, like,
almost nonexistent. So they can be in the classroom and then all of a sudden
get really, really angry or suddenly start laughing or crying, and there doesn't
necessarily seem to be any correlation to what's going on around.
It may be something happening internally, something that they're remembering
about what happened at home, but all of a sudden you're having to deal with
a child who is out of control. And what are you going to do and how are you
going to manage that child? So there is that. And then, of course, there is the
combination of any of the above. And then because of the memory problems
that you can have, you get further behind in school. Well, if you have the awareness
to realize that you're not the same as you were before and that used to be a
really good student but now you're not doing as well and you're not remembering
whereas before it used to be like that [snaps fingers], then that can get
really frustrating which can then make you really angry or get you really down.
And then a brain injury in itself gives you a risk of being depressed just because of
the brain injury, about 70% of the time, so depression is a factor as well.
And then the pleasure center of the brain, if it's isolated, puts these kids at great risk of
becoming substance users and addicted because the impact of that substance--
the impact of the alcohol or the cocaine or whatever--is going to be like 5 times greater
than what it would be to another kid. So they're going to get a super high and
become almost immediately addicted. So then it's really important to try and get them
to avoid using those substances, but most kids get into using those substances because
it makes them feel good about themselves, and when you're not feeling good about yourself
it seems pretty natural to head towards it. And the people who tend to start using
substances as a kid tend to be kids who are having trouble in school and are sort of
socially isolated, and a lot of kids with brain injuries become socially isolated because
they're not learning and they don't interact with their peers the same way as their peers do.
They're a little slower at understanding--you know--jokes and understanding what's cool.
They just don't quite get it. So there is a lot of sort of emotional behavioral things
that you have to deal with.
Produced by Victoria Tilney McDonough and Brian King, BrainLine.
Jane Gillett, MD,
Dr. Gillett was a fully qualified neurologist certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in both pediatric and adult neurology. She created and developed the Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Community Outreach Program (PABICOP) at the Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario and was the medical director for four years. She died unexpectedly of cancer in February 2011.
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Comments [2]
My first head injury took place when I was 6 I had a skull fracture with brain swelling seizure blah blah blah... the day i finally came back home from ICU my parents Notice I was not the same child I use to be. I was moody and my behaviors where different. Also when I went back to school less then a month I went from being a A student to a D student.. so this article hits home... I am now 38 years old be 39 in Dec and I still suffer so many problems I am now SMI and have unexplained medical conditions that the Neurologist says it Psychologist problem and the Psychologist says it's the Neurologist problem and I have to keep going back to my Internal Med doctor and she has no clue what to do.... because these doctors are suppose to be doing something for me and yet they aren't. I am at the end of my rope...
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I was attacked and my head hit against a wall. Slowly over the years I have had MANY different things going on, particularly a drastic change in personality, double incontinence, double vision and once, recently, whereas my right eyelid had been drooping, this time my eyeball went up under my eyelid! I have had all sorts of tests which keep coming back negative, but even my husband is convinced that there is definitely something wrong but I seem to be treated as "imagining" these things -r maybe "attention seeking". I have just read about a blood test to see whether I too am suffering from TBI. How much would the blood test cost and do you have any suggestions please. I am not the person I was! Thank you
Oct 1st, 2012 7:48pm