Traumatic Brain Injury: The Long Term Effects

Maryland, Washington, D.C. & Virginia

The long-term outcome of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is difficult or impossible to predict. While new breakthroughs are made every day, very little is known about the brain. Some patients make a rapid and full recovery, even from severe injuries, while others may experience permanent impairment from a minor concussion.

The area of the brain which has been injured may be far more important than the initial severity of injury. Symptoms can take months or even years to surface, and many people with Traumatic Brain Injury experience improvements followed by setbacks, making recovery a slow and frustrating process.

Overwhelming personality and behavioral changes can make Traumatic Brain Injury frightening and confusing for victims and their friends and family. More than anything, TBI victims need the understanding and support of loved ones.

Post Concussion Syndrome (PCS)
PCS is a combination of disorders from which TBI victims often suffer. Although recognized for over 100 years, PCS is still a controversial subject within the medical community, making support, treatment, and therapy difficult for many victims to obtain. Symptoms of PCS include:

• Headaches
• Neck pain
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
• Sensitivity to noise
• Sensitivity to light
• Vision problems
• Restlessness
• Sleep disorders
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Personality changes
• Apathy
• Depression
• Confusion
• Difficulty concentrating
• Impaired attention
• Memory problems
• Slowed mental processing
• Difficulty with abstract thinking

Personality and Behavioral Changes
Personality and behavior changes due to Traumatic Brain Injury are often the result of physical changes to certain sectors of the brain, changing the way a person thinks and feels. These changes may not reveal themselves for months or even years after injury. The results can include:

• Unprovoked anger
• Depression
• Loss of inhibitions
• Uncontrollable crying
• Altered or lost sense of self

Radical changes in emotions and behavior can lead to frightening episodes and even violent. Blackouts can occur, with Traumatic Brain Injury victims having no memory of their behavior, even though they seem to be fully conscious, active, and aware at the time.

Friends and loved ones, frightened and confused by these changes, often begin to treat Traumatic Brain Injury victims as strangers, leaving them feeling isolated and ostracized, further exacerbating depression and other problems.

Seizures and epilepsy
Head injury victims develop epilepsy within a year after injury. For others symptoms can take years to surface. Seizures pose a very high risk of causing a second brain injury. Traumatic Brain Injury victims are not always aware that they have developed epilepsy, and because people normally have no actual memory of having seizures, and it can take someone else witnessing one for a person to know they are occurring. In the meantime, the victim experiences unexplained memory lapses and an elevated risk of accidents and injuries.

If you or a loved one has suffered any kind of traumatic brain injury in Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC, please email or call our experienced brain injury attorneys today. We are committed to obtaining justice for you - the victim.

Print this page