Traumatic Brain Injury

Around one million people visit A&E each year following a head injury. A head injury can cause a range of different symptoms of varying degrees of severity. A more severe head injury is often referred to as a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is an injury to the brain caused by a trauma to the head (head injury). There are many possible causes, including road traffic accidents, assaults, falls and accidents at home or at work.

A mild head injury is defined as a brief period of unconsciousness, or just feeling sick and dizzy, and may result from a person banging their head getting into the car, walking into the top of a low door way, or slipping over in the street. It is estimated that 75-80% of all head injuries fall into this category.

A moderate head injury is defined as loss of consciousness for between 15 minutes and six hours, or a period of post-traumatic amnesia of up to 24 hours. The patient can be kept in hospital overnight for observation, and then discharged if there are no further obvious medical injuries. Patients with moderate head injury are likely to suffer from a number of residual symptoms.

Severe head injury is usually defined as being a condition where the patient has been in an unconscious state for six hours or more, or a post-traumatic amnesia of 24 hours or more. These patients are likely to be hospitalised and receive rehabilitation once the acute phase has passed. Depending on the length of time in coma, these patients tend to have more serious physical deficits.

The effects of a traumatic brain injury on an individual depends on a number of factors such as the type, location and severity of injury. Traumatic brain injury can leave you feeling that you have lost your independence as you find it difficult to do the things that you normally do.

Where the effects of brain injury persist or cause problems, a person may be referred to rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation aims to help the brain learn alternative ways of working in order to minimise the long-term impact of the brain injury, and help the survivor and their family to cope successfully with any remaining disabilities.

Our aim at TherapyMatters would be to promote your independence through hands on therapy, working to improve your muscle strength, muscle activation and function. Symptoms can be wide-ranging, from physical effects such as balance problems, headaches and dizziness to cognitive, emotional and behavioural effects such as memory problems and anger. All our team have years of experience working with people who have had a Traumatic Brain injury, and we will help you in your rehabilitation.

Don’t be discouraged during your recovery stages - recovery will take place and things will not be as difficult all the time. You will make changes and start to improve in your function. Please phone us if you have any questions or need to discuss this some more, we are happy to help.