Behavioral Assessment of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) Essay

Awareness about traumatic brain injury has increased because of combat operations in Irag and Afghanistan and in the National Football League. The debate over the nature of traumatic brain injury is an ongoing issue. Some think of categorizing from mild to the server is the condition of TBI that can lead to a person bring over diagnosed or misdiagnosed. The other side points out that the focus should not be on diagnosis put on the recovery and treatment of the symptoms.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a type of injury that is a critical public health and socio-economic problem. TBI is a leading cause of death and disability in both children and adults [5]. The Centers for Disease Control and

Concussions are complex cerebral injuries that result in a series of metabolic events within the brain. The changes are seen in the fragile neuronal homeostatic balances where changes in the elevations of glutamate and potassium have been identified. The effects of concussions have also been seen in the functioning of the brain rather than in the structure of the brain itself. Being identified as mild traumatic brain injuries, occurring due to a bump or jolt to head or neck, concussions can result in both short-term and long-term effects. Although most individuals are able to recover from these head injuries, a small but relevant portion of individuals have been found to suffer from chronic long-term effects including early onsets of Alzheimer disease, clinical depression and other cognitive complications. The occurrence of a secondary concussion during the recovery phase of a primary concussion, also recognized as the second impact syndrome, has been shown to increase the risk for long-term effects of cerebral and neurological failure as the neurons have become incapable of experiencing normal functions after an initial traumatic brain injury. The recoveries from these initial concussions are critical to prevent the onset of long-term effects.

Dorothy Gronwall, a concussion specialist wrote in Cumulative and Persisting Effects of Concussion on Attention and Cognition, “After MHI (mild head injury), patients have difficulty in all areas that require them to analyze more items of information than they can handle simultaneously. They present as slow because it takes longer for smaller than normal chunks of information to be processed. They present as distractible because they do not have the spare capacity to monitor irrelevant stimuli at the same time as they are attending to the relevant stimulus. They present as forgetful because while they are concentrating on point A, they do not have the processing space to think about point B simultaneously. They present as inattentive because when the amount of information that they are given exceeds their capacities, they cannot take it all in.” All of these symptoms are permanent effects that a person can have after having only mild head injury. It is clear that it is important to take care of the injuries the correct

Some of the long term effects that are stated in the article Long Term Effects of Brain Injuries are server problems with attention and short-term memory, having difficulty performing daily tasks, and feeling “slower” overall are just some of the thing that I’ve learn to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Medical and technological advances have led to greater survival rates in individuals suffering from various illness and injury throughout history. This includes individuals who suffer traumatic and nontraumatic brain injuries. Approximately 1.5 million people in the United States sustain a brain injury each year with the survival rate of over 90 percent making brain injury the leading cause for disability in the United States. (Mysiw, Bogner, Corrigan, Fugate, Clinchot, & Kadyan 2006). Cognitive, physical, sensory and behavioral changes are widely noted in individuals in the months and years following a brain injury. However, the psychosocial, psychological and emotional effects of these injuries are less discussed and therefore these aspects can be overlooked when anticipating a course of treatment. Individuals who sustain acquired brain injuries experience significant, lasting impairment in the psychosocial, psychological and emotional aspects of their lives and better understanding of these issues can lead to better treatment and coping skills for these individuals.

Concussions or mild traumatic brain injuries (MTBI) are the most common forms of traumatic brain injury. There are between 1.6 and 3.8 million concussions a year that occur due to sports and recreation accidents alone (CDC). Mild concussions and MTBIs were once thought to be insignificant in terms of consequences. However, there now is significant evidence that neurological even with what is thought to be a mild injury, physiological, and cognitive changes can occur. Individuals sustaining mild brain injuries often report an assortment of physical, cognitive, and emotional/behavioral symptoms referred to as post concussion syndrome (PCS). There are many symptoms associated with PCS, but these symptoms are often mistaken as behavior, mood, and/or adjustment disorders.

Health professionals will often interchange between the two terms, concussion and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), when discussing this health condition (Halstead, Walter, Council on Sports, & Fitness, 2010). A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury resulting from a traumatic event which causes the affected individual to experience temporary neurological deficits, these are a result of “biomechanical forces” that have reached the head taking effect on the brain (Jordan, 2013; Paul McCrory et al., 2009; Silver, McAllister, & Yudofsky, 2011). This type of injury usually presents with multiple post concussive symptoms, although in some cases these symptoms do not present themselves until later (Paul McCrory et al., 2009), in which can result in the concussion going unnoticed.

Perhaps one of the least understood injuries is a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), otherwise known as a concussion. Over 1,000,000 concussions occur the United States every year (Majerske et al., 2008), and can be caused by any blow to the head. It is likely that many concussions do not go diagnosed. 300,000 of these concussion have been contributed to sports related injury (Majerske et al., 2008), making the study of sports related concussions in athletes the most important and easiest subjects to study.

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) also known as a concussion is a serious health problem to athletes, especially to football players. The brain controls the body and gives a person personality and defines every aspect of his or her life. A brain injury can disrupt a person’s life in an instance and like broken bones or bruises; TBI can limit or prevent normal body functions. A brain injury, unlike common injuries can damage mental abilities to include memory and speech. There are only two classifications in TBI; mild and severe. Mild TBI is classified as loss of consciousness and or confusion and disorientation for less than thirty minutes. Severe TBI is thirty or more minutes and with memory loss. A person

Concussion, also known as minor head trauma or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is the most common type of traumatic brain injury. It is typically defined as a head injury with a temporary loss of brain function. Symptoms include a variety of physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms, which may not be recognized if subtle. A variety of signs accompany concussion including headache, feeling in a fog, and emotional changeability. In general, the signs can be categorized into physical signs (such as loss of consciousness or amnesia), behavioral changes (such as irritability), cognitive impairment (such as slowed reaction times), and sleep disturbances.[1] Fewer than 10% of sports-related concussions among children are associated with loss of consciousness.[2]

As concussions cause physical damage to the brain tissue it can affect how the tissue develops, meaning children with traumatic brain injury can have lasting negative effects on cognition and academic success (US News). In fact, “children who experience traumatic brain injuries during the ages of 3-7 are more than three times more likely to develop Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)” (US News). ADHD is the most common psychiatric disorder among children with history of brain injuries. It is important that caregivers keep a close watch on children who have suffered brain injuries, even several years after the injury has occurred (US News). These symptoms can create life altering situations for children especially in regard to their education. Concussions limit a students ability to concentrate and mental exertion can cause symptoms like headaches to worsen. An example given by an educational resource explains that if “a student with a concussion spends a lot of energy studying intensely for an exam, there will be less energy available to help the brain repair itself, which may delay recovery. These effects are referred to as cognitive-exertional effects”. This means that participation in school can worsen symptoms and slow recovery time therefore prolonging the symptoms of the injury. This document also recommends that students take breaks known as “cognitive rest” to allow the brain to recover and prevent mental exertion. Unfortunately this will limit students from several activities such as “using a computer, driving, watching television, studying for or taking an exam, using a cell phone, reading, playing video games, and text messaging or other activities that cause concussion symptoms to appear or worsen” (Brain Injury Association of Canada). This is the effect that concussions have on the cognitive aspects of a student’s life but there

Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI), however, are simply another term used to describe a milder form of concussion. Similar to the conceptual definition of a concussion, the World Health Organization Collaborating Neurotrauma Task Force defines an mTBI as being “an acute brain injury resulting from mechanical energy to the head from external physical forces” (Crandall et. al., 2014, p. 1359).

The cognitive challenges that can occur with Post-Concussion Syndrome include troubles with attention, concentration, memory, reasoning, planning, understanding, speaking, and language. As a result of damage to the upper brain stem and frontal lobes, the abilities to act upon and register messages from the brain and the outside world are impaired (Stoler & Hill, 2013, p. 206). These attention and concentration problems could impact alertness to react upon information, the capacity of sustained attention, and the ability to focus on one thing. Memory problems, associated with damage to the complicated memory system in the brain, could include issues registering information, perceiving input from the environment, storing information, especially

Traumatic Brain Injury is otherwise known as TBI. “Traumatic brain injury, a form of acquired brain injury, occurs when sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue” (NINDS, 2010). There are two main types of TBI, closed head injuries such as head hitting a windshield and penetrating head injuries such as a gunshot wound. As reported by the Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation,” The severity of traumatic brain injuries is often assessed using the Glasgow Coma Scale, with scores ranging from 3 to 15. The higher the score,