Traumatic Brain Injuries and Memory Loss

HOME 1.

Review Guidelines | 2.

Review TOS | 3.

Signup FREE | 4.

Submit Articles

Free Articles on Disease & Illness and many other topics
Another free Disease & Illness article for you

Home | Disease & Illness

Traumatic Brain Injuries and Memory Loss - By: Peter Kent, Posted on: 2007-12-27

Depictions of head-injury patients in movies and television almost always show the patient experiencing some type of amnesia, or memory loss. Indeed, memory loss is the most common cognitive side effect of a severe traumatic brain injury. In patients with a milder TBI, memory loss is still one of the most common symptoms. And the more severe the patient's memory loss is, the more severe the brain damage is likely to be.

Temporary Memory Loss and TBI

Some traumatic brain injury-related amnesia is temporary; such patients are usually unable to recall what happened directly before, during and after their accidents. This is often caused by the brain swelling as an effect of the sustained damage; this is also known as an edema. Because the brain has been pushed against the skull, even parts that were not directly injured are unable to function. As the swelling goes down, the patient's memory returns, often slowly over a period of weeks, months or even years. Some patients who suffered from a traumatic brain injury may respond emotionally by experiencing temporary memory loss.

Other, less common, types of memory loss stemming from traumatic brain injury are fixed. These result from damage to the nerves and axons (connections between nerves) of the brain itself. The brain is not durable like a leg or an arm, so any part of the brain that is damaged during a TBI causing functions to be impaired could be permanently impaired, unless the brain learns another way of performing that function. Fixed amnesia may include inability to remember events before the injury, or loss of memory of the meanings of certain things, such as words or smells or objects. Although it is not as common, a victim of a TBI may not remember skills that he or she had before the injury was sustained.

Brain Damage and Anteretrograde Amnesia

A patient with TBI may also develop anteretrograde amnesia -- an inability to form memories of events that happened after the injury. A study conducted at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in October 2006 found that TBIs lower the levels of protein, although the reason for this is not well understood. Without enough of that protein, the brain can "overload," the researchers said, interfering with memory formation, particularly the ability to learn new things.

Treatment Options for Traumatic Brain Injury Patients with Amnesia

There is no treatment for memory loss caused by a traumatic brain injury; if the memory does not come back on its own, it is gone forever. Fortunately, a study published in the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology called Neurology depicted encouraging results in patients suffering from TBIs with anteretrograde memory loss who took a drug called rivastigmine. The drug, which is sold to Alzheimer's disease patients under the brand name Exelon, helped patients with moderate to severe memory loss score better on memory tests than another group of patients that took placebos. Patients who had only mild memory loss did not give as good of results. If you suffer from traumatic brain injury-related memory problems, you may wish to contact an experienced TBI attorney to discuss your options, which may include filing a brain injury lawsuit in order to gain compensation for your medical costs.

Article Source: http://higradesearch.com

Your source for everything legal on the web is located at LegalView.com. You can find LegalView at www.besthealthequipments.com and access a complete legal database and also make use of the free attorney referral service. Utilizing this service, users can find attorneys dealing with a variety of legal services such as a construction accident attorney or mesothelioma lawyers. Visitors can also find a brain

Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated