Cheap Pain Killers Online.Between 80,000-90,000 people who suffer traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) each year develop long-term disabilities related to their TBI. Many others suffer from a variety of long-term, problematic symptoms that continue to interfere with their lives. When they try to get help for these issues
What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?
There’s a lot of confusing vocabulary to describe traumatic brain injuries. To be sure we’re on the same page in this article, we’ll define some terms that are commonly used to describe TBIs, what causes them, and how we evaluate their severity.
Defining Traumatic Brain Injury
A traumatic brain injury is a brain dysfunction caused by an outside source. Very simply: damage occurs to the brain, and the brain doesn’t function normally after that.
We refer to a brain injury caused by an outside source as an acquired brain injury, meaning it happens after birth. To be clear, other scenarios can result in brain damage that doesn’t come from an outside source.
What Causes Traumatic Brain Injury?
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) have been on the increase since 2006 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC reported 2.53 million emergency department (ED) visits and 56,800 deaths related to TBI in the year 2014 alone. That’s a staggering number of brain injuries, and it doesn’t even include mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI), commonly known as concussions, that didn’t result in a trip to the ED.
Sources of Traumatic Brain Injuries
A traumatic brain injury often happens because of a direct blow to the head, but it can result from any jarring movement that causes the brain to smash into the skull. Inflammation and swelling inside the brain often damage nerves and prevent areas of the brain from receiving the oxygen and glucose it needs to perform. These effects of the injury disrupt the normal function of the brain.
Some of the most common sources of traumatic brain injuries are falls, motor vehicle accidents, assaults, and sporting injuries. Military service members have a fairly high rate of TBI. A TBI can even be a byproduct of a life-saving operation such as neurosurgery.
Sources of Non-Traumatic Brain Injuries
Non-traumatic brain injuries usually damage the brain by a lack of oxygen as a result of internal bleeding, clotting, or toxins, or as a result of pressure being placed on areas of the brain from a tumor. This results in damage or even death of brain tissue.
Common sources of non-traumatic brain injuries are stroke, aneurysm, and near-drowning.
Others that involve toxins include carbon monoxide poisoning, chemotherapy, and lead poisoning. Bacterial and viral infections (including COVID-19), meningitis and encephalitis, and similar conditions can also cause destructive inflammation.
What Are the Acute Signs of a Traumatic Brain Injury?
Sometimes it’s clear that someone has experienced a traumatic brain injury and needs to get to a hospital immediately. For example, if someone is bleeding and unconscious after a car accident or a fall from a ladder, we know to call emergency responders right away.
Very often, however, people are unsure. Depending on where you live and what medical coverage you have, visits to the emergency department are expensive; people don’t want to overreact. To make things even more confusing, sometimes a person seems fine right after an incident, but alarming symptoms develop over the next few hours or days.
Traumatic Brain Injury in Children
The Brain Injury Association of America reports that brain injuries are the leading cause of death and disability in children and teenagers.
Children’s brains are different from adults. Sometimes their injuries aren’t immediately evident, and children can’t always verbalize what they’re experiencing.
Emotional Problems After Traumatic Brain Injury
A range of mental health and emotional issues can affect those who have suffered a TBI. Anxiety and depression are common. Personality (mood) changes, mood swings, and difficulty controlling impulses can also be an issue.Cheap Pain Killers Online
The challenges associated with life after a TBI and the emotional and personality changes that sometimes go along with it can also contribute to relationship difficulties.
The injury can cause roles in a partnership to change. A study by Virginia Commonwealth University investigated divorce rates following TBI and identified some important potential factors in separation and divorce.
Other Causes of Long-Term Traumatic Brain Injury Symptoms
A traumatic brain injury can result in hormonal changes, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, vestibular dysfunction, and vision problems. Here’s a quick look at each.
Hormone Dysfunction: The pituitary gland dangles from a thin stalk in your brain. If twisting or shearing of the nerves occurs — or if neurovascular coupling affects the pituitary gland, hypothalamus, or other regions involving hormone regulation — then you might experience changes in growth hormone, thyroid, cortisol, or sex hormone levels. In turn, those changes can produce symptoms throughout the body. A good endocrinologist can test your hormone levels and provide treatment while taking your history of TBI into account.
