Brain Injury Awareness Month is all about raising awareness of brain injury risks and resources. In addition to all they do throughout the year, the Brain Injury Association of America launches their annual campaign during the month of March to further spread their message of how common these injuries are and how TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and ABI (Acquired Brain Injury) changes every life it touches.
TBI Changes Lives…
Estimated mortality rates reflect that only 30% to 50% of the injured actually survive severe closed head injuries.(1) Whether a brain injury is considered mild, moderate, or severe, every outcome is different. Some can recover partially, some may even make a full recovery, and others suffer with major symptoms for the rest of their lives.
Who Needs to Know More?
Everyone needs to know more about the causes and symptoms of brain injury. For obvious reasons, parents need to have very high awareness, caretakers of those at risk for falls, and folks who participate in contact sports, as well as their loved ones, need to be very familiar with both the causes and the symptoms.
Another group of people that needs to know more is our medical community. Someone who had a fall may complain about back pain or bodily trauma, yet never mention they had a knock on the head. A high percentage of mTBI (mild TBI) cases go underdiagnosed or unidentified, studies have shown results of less than a 50% identification rate of mTBI conditions in the emergency room.(2) Parents need to know that symptoms of children with mTBI are often underestimated, underdiagnosed, and not treated adequately.(3)
A general practitioner may have a broad base of knowledge, but without direct experience or additional training may not have visibility of what TBI/ABI aftercare should look like. My doctor told me that waiting two years to see what heals on its own was the commonly accepted practice. Yet studies show that some of the best results from therapies are realized from early rehabilitation treatments.(4) The impacts of a brain injury can last a lifetime, but early treatment may help to reduce symptom severity in many cases. I wish my medical practitioner had known more.
What Do We Need to Know?
We need to know how often these injuries happen.
According to the CDC, in 2014, 2.87 million TBI-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths occurred in the US alone – and this included over 837,000 children. https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html
We need to know they are always cause for concern.
I was raised in a generation that was told a knock on the head was really nothing to worry about. We watched the movies where someone who had lost their memory from a head injury got it back when they got hit again. The message we received was that most injuries are inconsequential. Brain injury awareness is changing this mindset and needs to be spread far and wide.
We need to know the causes.
The leading cause cited by the CDC report referenced above was falls. In children, 49% was from falls. In older adults age 65 and up, it was 81% – 4 out of 5 TBIs were from taking a fall. Motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of TBI related deaths for persons 15-34, and older adults aged 75 years and up. Another major cause that is gaining strong media coverage these days is participation in impact sports.
We need to be able to recognize the symptoms.
A child may come in after a fall complaining about a scraped knee and never mention he hit his head when he fell. After a fender bender, you may dismiss your bump on the head as nothing to worry about. But there are key symptoms we need to watch for after any injury to the head that we should be able to recognize.
The table below, provided by the CDC, defines the four categories symptoms often fall into. It’s important to understand that this isn’t a comprehensive list, but it does identify major warning signs.
|
Thinking/ Remembering | Physical |
Emotional/ Mood | Sleep |
| Difficulty thinking clearly | Headache Fuzzy or blurry vision | Irritability | Sleeping more than usual |
| Feeling slowed down | Nausea or vomiting (early on) Dizziness | Sadness | Sleep less than usual |
| Difficulty concentrating | Sensitivity to noise or light Balance problems | More emotional | Trouble falling asleep |
| Difficulty remembering new information | Feeling tired, having no energy | Nervousness or anxiety |
If you or someone you know has had a head injury, always seek medical care. Afterwards, be watchful for any of these symptoms and if you notice any of them, immediately seek follow up treatment with your medical professional.
We need to know about second impact syndrome.
After a brain injury has occurred, we now understand that the brain is at an increased risk of further injury from a subsequent impact before the first has fully healed.(5) After a brain injury, it is even more important to protect your head.
We need to understand preventative measures.
Doing what we can to protect ourselves from brain injury can make a difference. Protective gear, available safety measures, and avoidance of high-risk activities can help prevent brain injuries in ourselves and our loved ones.
Promoting Awareness
We need to spread awareness all year long, but this month gains a national, even global, visibility of brain injury and the need to raise awareness. This is from the BIAA website resource on Brain Injury Awareness Month:
What Can I Do for the #ChangeYourMind Campaign?
- Visit
the Campaign Website
biausa.org/ChangeYourMind - Connect and Engage on Social Media
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram - Download the #ChangeYourMind Stamp
Color | Black & White | White - Share Posters, Flyers, and Ads
View #ChangeYourMind Collateral - Read
and Share Your Personal Story
Share Your Story
Whatever your medium, whether you post to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram – or you just print out some posters to hang on local bulletin boards, do what you can to help more people know what they need to know to protect themselves and their loved ones.
References
- An
unusual recovery from traumatic brain injury in a young man
Denesh Ratnasingam, Darren S. Lovick, Dennis M. Weber, Richard V. Buonocore, William V. Williams (2015)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4313431/ - Evaluation
and Treatment of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: The Role of Neuropsychology
Carolyn Prince, Maya E. Bruhns (2017)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5575625/ - The
role of early intervention in improving the level of activities and
participation in youths after mild traumatic brain injury: a scoping
review
Caroline van Heugten, Irene Renaud, Christine Resch (2017)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6093851/ - Early Rehabilitation in Head Injury; Can We Improve the
Outcomes?
Rajiv Singh, Guruprasad Venkateshwara, Julie Batterley, Sarah Bruce (2013)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3950911/ - Second Impact Syndrome
Todd May, Lisa A. Foris, Chester J. Donnally III (2019)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK448119/
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