Long Term Effects Of Trauma

Concussions affect about 30,000 athletes each year, so it is safe to say that they are a very common sports injury. The question of if the athletes who are hit with a concussion should get longer out time to recover has a simple answer. Yes! Of course these athletes need longer time to stay out of playing. Concussions can be very dangerous, they can have long term effects, and repetitive blows to the head can cause serious brain damage. According to the article written by Cindy Weiss, if athletes are given a proper amount of time to recover, they will soon be able to return to the game.

After the long and physically demanding battles of World War Two, many soldiers returned to the United States of America battling injuries many physicians did not know how to acknowledge at the time. But, as many soldiers were able to return to their families, even with a brain injury, many soldiers lost their lives to brain injuries. Two researchers who conducted one of the largest studies on base camps about the extent of brain injuries and how it affected soldiers was Sekulovic and Ceramilac, these researchers were able to “summaries autopsies of 499 deaths occurring within 30 days of traumatic brain injury.”1 Sekulovic and Ceramilac were able to find “that 78% of the deaths were due to injury to brain stem, brain edema or brain compression.”1 While Sekulovic and Ceramilac were able to determine the percentage of which were affected by brain injuries during World War Two, many researchers were hoping to acknowledge the dynamic longer term possibilities. According to Dr. Ian J. Baguley, “patients who had been released from the hospital into rehabilitation facilities”1 were considered long term for brain injuries. Where as Dr. Robert M. Shavelle found that patients coming from war can be classified as long term as long as the effects lasted “one year or longer post injury.”1 Many studies by various researchers were also able to discover that “even in long-term, death rates from many different causes are elevated for persons with [traumatic brain injury] by comparison with

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.

Injury is a serious public health issue. Injuries differ by their nature and severity. Injuries can be unintentional or intentional. Unintentional injuries include road traffic injuries, falls, burns, drowning, poisoning, and intentional injuries include self-inflicted injuries, interpersonal violence, and war-related injuries [1,2,3]. Globally, injury causes over five million deaths per year [1,2,3]. Injury cases result in more deaths than HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined (3.8 million) [1,3,4]. Nonfatal injuries represent a large proportion of the injury burden and deaths represent a small proportion [4]. Most injuries result in significant psychological trauma, potentially life-long disability, and subsequent financial loss [4].

Attention for traumatic brain injury has grown over the years and programs have been created to help try and prevent the injuries. As this is an injury to the brain the literature is vast with insight into what part of the brain injured resulted in what change in the individual. Children and athletics have been the main focus in recent years for studies as research have shown that undiagnosed injuries can have long lasting effects.

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.

During the study, researchers tested 63 men aging from 18 to 28. The original idea was to compare men who had been diagnosed with a concussion to those who haven’t been diagnosed. After questioning all of the participants about their concussion history and other head related injuries, they discovered that many of them had experienced concussions without being diagnosed. 31 out of the 63 tested had experienced a concussion or the symptoms of the concussions prior to the test. A result from the questions suggests that many people lack knowledge of concussions and the symptoms. To investigate their attention deficits, the researchers used a “MMN” test, which involves showing the individual a flashing letter M on a screen. When the M changes to an N, your brain activity should increase indicating that the person is focusing. The researchers saw spikes in brain activity for those who had never experienced a concussion, but they did not see a spike in the concussion group. Which suggests that concussions affected the individuals’ attention abilities. Concluding, we can all see that concussion affect memory and concentration

The Chart below shows that during 2002-2007, there were 854 Major traumatic brain injuries compared to 887 from 1996-2001. This proved that my hypothesis was correct in saying

The above mentioned research study did not control for the age of traumatic brain injury patients in such a way that patients could be compared on this basis. Research on brain damage (due to traumatic brain injury, substance abuse, and other means of neurological harm) and the effects of age on the likelihood of extensive recovery has been conducted over the past several decades in the fields of both medicine and psychology, and conflicting evidence exists. Some studies suggest that young brains are more vulnerable to irreversible brain damage due to the underdevelopment of neurons and brain structures, while other studies indicate that the brains of older individuals are less “plastic” than in younger individuals, making them less resilient to damage. To study the outcomes of pediatric traumatic brain injury as opposed to traumatic brain injury in adulthood, Catroppa et al. conducted research on children that had suffered a TBI between the ages of one and seven years. Participants were recruited

Trauma occurs when a child has experienced an event that threatens or causes harm to her emotional and physical well-being. Events can include war, terrorism, natural disasters, but the most common and harmful to a child’s psychosocial well-being are those such as domestic violence, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, maltreatment, and witnessing a traumatic event. While some children may experience a traumatic event and go on to develop normally, many children have long lasting implications into adulthood.

The disabilities that result from moderate to severe TBI differ depending on the area of injury, but they may include difficulties in speech, coordination, bilateral function, memory, complex thinking, and other areas (Murrey, 2006). Emotional and social areas are also affected by TBI due to changes in familial roles, lowered self-esteem, and hopelessness brought on by the injury (Murrey, 2006). Because of this, suicide rates in these patients are remarkably high, with 33% of patients at risk (León-Carriòn et al., 2005). Recovery in TBI patients may occur spontaneously throughout the two years following the trauma (León-Carrión et al., 2005). Beyond this point, remaining disabilities are usually permanent (León-Carrión et al., 2005).

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,

When I decided to take the trauma course, I was hesitant at first to take it. I did not know what to expect nor felt I would be prepare listen to stories about traumatic occurrences, despite of the number of years I have worked in the field of community mental health. Therefore, now that we are in week eight, I am delighted to have taken this course. The impression I had at first, has changed my insight concerning what is trauma, as for many years, I did not understand why a person in many instances, could not process their trauma. In a quote by Chang stated, “The greater the doubt, the greater the awakening; the smaller the doubt, the smaller the awakening. No doubt, no awakening” (Van Der Kolk, 2014, p. 22). The goes in congruence with my understanding on trauma and how it has changed during this course. As a result, I feel I am awakening when acquiring more about trauma.

The experience of trauma can be identified as either acute (e.g., natural disaster, serious accident) or chronic (e.g., physical abuse, sexual abuse), which