Impact of Traumatic Brain Injury on Patients and Carers - Assignment Example

The overall annual incidence of traumatic brain injury in the United Kingdom is nearly 300/100 000. (British,1998) A majority of the TBI patients are young however their life expectancy is only occasionally diminished, (NHS, 1996; Rimel et al, 1990) this has resulted in a substantial population of TBI victims living in the UK. It has been conjectured that as many as 500 000 people in the United Kingdom may be presently living with the consequences of their head injury. (McMillan &Greenwood 1991).

Traumatic brain injury is often "a hidden disability"(Social, 1995) as an affected person may appear physically normal, and as yet may harbor considerable cognitive, psychological, social, emotional, and behavioral problems. While it is a fact that about 2% of the US population suffers from some form of TBI-related disability, as yet no known holistic pharmacological treatment is currently available. As a result TBI progressively causes post-acute injury, progressive neuronal degeneration occasioned by acute and delayed cell death mediated in part by calpains (Kampfl et al. 1996) and in part by apoptotic-inducing caspases (Rink et al.

1995; Colicos et al. 1996; Yakovlev et al. 1997; Conti et al. 1998; Newcomb et al. 1999; Clark et al. 2000).Thus psychosocial problems, in particular, have been documented long after discharge from acute services. These include impaired judgment, short temper, aggression, and intolerance of others. (McKinlay et al,1981; Tate et al,1981; Thomsen ,1992; Koskinen,1998) The long-term or permanent effects of brain injury may require post-injury and possibly life-long rehabilitation. Such effects include: cognitive deficits-coma, confusion, shortened attention span, memory problems and amnesia, problem-solving deficits, problems with judgment, inability to understand abstract concepts, loss of sense of time and space, decreased awareness of self and others, inability to accept more than one- or two-step commands simultaneously; motor deficits- paralysis or weakness, spasticity (tightening and shortening of the muscles), poor balance decreased endurance, inability to plan motor movements, delays in initiation.

tremors, swallowing problems and poor coordination; perceptual or sensory deficits- changes in hearing, vision, taste, smell, and touch, loss of sensation or heightened sensation of body parts, left- or right-sided neglect, difficulty understanding where limbs are in relation to the body and vision problems, including double vision, lack of visual acuity, or limited range of vision; communication and language deficits- difficulty speaking and understanding speech (aphasia)difficulty choosing the right words to say (apraxia), slow, hesitant speech and decreased vocabulary, difficulty forming sentences that make sense, problems identifying objects and their function and problems with reading, writing, and ability to work with numbers; social difficulties- impaired social capacity resulting in self-centered behavior, etc.