Crow's Nest Online Support Group
For Brain / Neurological Injury
*Wikipedia Brain Injury Article
Brain damage or brain injury is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells.
Brain damage may occur due to a wide range of conditions, illnesses, injuries, and as a result of iatrogenesis. Possible causes of widespread (diffuse) brain damage include prolonged hypoxia (shortage of oxygen), poisoning by teratogens (including alcohol), infection, and neurological illness. Chemotherapy can cause brain damage to the neural stem cells and oligodendrocyte cells that produce myelin. Common causes of focal or localized brain damage are physical trauma (traumatic brain injury), stroke, aneurysm, or neurological illness.
The extent and effect of brain injury is often assessed by the use of neurological examination, neuroimaging, and neuropsychological assessment.
Brain injury does not necessarily result in long-term impairment or disability, although the location and extent of damage both have a significant effect on the likely outcome. In serious cases of brain injury, the result can be permanent disability, including neurocognitive deficits, delusions (often specifically monothematic delusions), speech or movement problems, and mental handicap. There may also be personality changes. Severe brain damage may result in persistent vegetative state, coma, or death.
Various professions may be involved in the medical care and rehabilitation of someone who suffers impairment after brain damage. Neurologists, neurosurgeons, and physiatrists are physicians who specialise in treating brain injury. Neuropsychologists (especially clinical neuropsychologists) are psychologists who specialise in understanding the effects of brain injury and may be involved in assessing the extent of brain damage or creating rehabilitation programmes. Occupational therapists may be involved in running rehabilitation programmes to help restore lost function or help re-learn essential skills.
It is a common misconception that brain damage sustained during childhood has a better chance of successful recovery than similar injury acquired in adult life. In fact, the consequences of childhood injury may simply be more difficult to detect in the short term. This is because different cortical areas mature at different stages, with some major cell populations and their corresponding cognitive faculties remaining unrefined until early adulthood. In the case of a child with frontal brain injury, for example, the impact of the damage may be undetectable until that child fails to develop normal executive functions in his or her late teens and early twenties.
The effects of impairment or disability resulting from brain injury may be treated by a number of methods, including medication, psychotherapy, neuropsychological rehabilitation, snoezelen, surgery, or physical implants such as deep brain stimulation.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article 'Metasyntactic variable'.
Last modified 3/3/07
*Printable Documents (Opens a new window)
Caregiver Bill of Rights
What You Can do to Help
A Letter From Your Brain
An Open Letter for Those Without an Invisible Disability
Survivor Bill of Rights
*Wikipedia Links (Opens Wikipedia's website in a new window)
Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis
Adrenoleukodystrophy
Agnosia
Akinetic Mutism
Alzheimer's Disease
Aneurysm
Aphasia
Apraxia
Bell's Palsy
Binswanger's Disease
Brain Damage
Catatonia
Cerebral Aneurysm
Cerebral Palsy
Clinical Depression
Coma
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Dementia
Dementia with Lewy Bodies
Diffuse Axonal Injury
Dyslexia
Frontotemporal Dementia
Huntington's Disease
Hydrocephalus
Hypoxia
Locked-In Syndrome
Lyme Disease
Migraine
Multi-Infarct Dementia
Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple System Atrophy
Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus
Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy
Parkinson's Disease
Persistent Vegetative State
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
Prosopagnosia
Semantic Dementia
Shaken Baby Syndrome
Shy-Drager Syndrome
Spinocerebellar Ataxia
Stroke
Transient Ischemic Attacks
Traumatic Brain Injury
Tremor