Can head injuries cause mental illness?

I have a sister that was in a bad car crash 20 years ago and received a closed head injury; It affected her walking and things for awhile... physical reabilitation and such.

Recently she's been getting some help in the area from a new organization that specializes in head injuries and getting help for those that have them (rides, help finding doctors, etc). The lady in charge of the program feels that my sister's behavioral problems and personality quirks are a direct result of the head injury. I personally disagree with this, for two reasons.

1- I've known my sister her whole life (obviously) and she's always pretty much been the same person... nothing's really been all that different in the past 20 years.
2- I have all of the same quirks and issues as my sister has, only to a milder extent... and I've never had a head injury.

I'd like some other opinions on this. Can head injuries cause mental illness and personality disorders? Bipolar for instance, mood swings, angry outbursts followed by a calmed down frame of mind not too long after. Erratic sleeping, etc. basic mental stuff. I think it's all psychological myself and not related to any physical trauma of the brain.

Thoughts?

Simple answer? Sort of. All of the disorders mentioned are caused by various areas of the brain, that when damaged can cause the same effect. A number of troops coming back from Iraq are having symptoms very similar to brain disorders, caused by the fact that they're surviving things that soldiers didn't survive before, but with closed head trauma injuries. I was watching the story of one soldier and his family, where he can barely function with them anymore, because he has all the symptoms of a brain disorder caused by a head injury when an IED went off near him.

[edit on 2/10/2008 by Zaphod58]

I have a family member who, after an auto accident, had problems with impulse control. He suffered a head trauma in the accident and his behavior was severly affected. He eventually took his own life. There are still so many unknowns where the brain is concerned.

I was shot in the frontal lobe when I was 13, I didn't suffer much brain damage except loss of childhood memories and a lot of empathy which turned into bipolar disorder.

So your answer is yes head injuries can cause mental illness the brain is a very complicated organ.

I was in an accident a about 3 years ago were i had surgury on my frontal lobe. and i feel different, my emotions are fluctuating, could it be from the accident?
~Lidl

what ever.

Why ask if you already know ??? pftttttt ......






[edit on 29-6-2008 by Dan Tanna]

Dan... For twenty years since my sister's accident, my family has had opportunity to learn from professionals and specialists in the field, as well as interact with and get to know various other people with closed head injuries. One thing we do know is that my sister is *NO* classical case...

Occasionally someone will feel that they can easily determine that they know everything, just based on generic knowledge regarding head injuries. I referenced one such person in my OP... but that person isn't a specialist and I'll assume you aren't one either.

And thank you for your concern, she is in good hands and quite well cared for and provided for. Thanks as well for reviving a four month old thread.

[edit on 29-6-2008 by Bachelor]

.... deleted because your just not worth the effort.

period.

[edit on 29-6-2008 by Dan Tanna]

Originally posted by Dan Tanna
Look I could go on all night here

Go right ahead... knock yourself out. You aren't impressing me friend.

My family has had opportunity to learn and be educated from some of the most highly trained specialists in the field, for the past twenty years. Respectfully, you are just a stranger on a forum who doesn't know my sister and is in no position to diagnose her or classify her in any way.

My husband had a Traumatic Brain Injury when he was hit by a motorcycle four years ago. From that experience, I learned that TBI's can cause definate personality changes. That is one of the first things I was told by the doctors and nurses when he was admitted into the hospital. There are of course memory problems, and sometimes (luckily not in our case) cognitive difficulties. He does not handle stress well. Sometimes people with head injuries do have medicines prescribed that are also used for depression, psychosis, and mood disorder. The good news is that some patients get better with time.

Howard Hughes suffered from some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder thought to be brought on by multiple head injuries. He was in several accidents and fractured his skull three times.

Originally posted by Bachelor
I have a sister that was in a bad car crash 20 years ago and received a closed head injury; It affected her walking and things for awhile... physical reabilitation and such.

Recently she's been getting some help in the area from a new organization that specializes in head injuries and getting help for those that have them (rides, help finding doctors, etc). The lady in charge of the program feels that my sister's behavioral problems and personality quirks are a direct result of the head injury. I personally disagree with this, for two reasons.

1- I've known my sister her whole life (obviously) and she's always pretty much been the same person... nothing's really been all that different in the past 20 years.
2- I have all of the same quirks and issues as my sister has, only to a milder extent... and I've never had a head injury.

I'd like some other opinions on this. Can head injuries cause mental illness and personality disorders? Bipolar for instance, mood swings, angry outbursts followed by a calmed down frame of mind not too long after. Erratic sleeping, etc. basic mental stuff. I think it's all psychological myself and not related to any physical trauma of the brain.

Thoughts?

Yes head injury can change the brain chemistry and affect the person in many ways. In the UK there are a lot if NHS funded acquired brain injury units, some deal with physical issues, some with mental but many with both. The NHS doesn't find without reason so I'd say YES!

Head trauma is always a serious matter. The fact that it affected her walking means that it at least affected her cerebellum in some way. So, it's quite possible that she could have received injury to her frontal lobe which would account for the symptoms you've mentioned. Just look at Phineas Gage. While I'm not saying your sister's case is as severe as his, this is a clear example of how damage to the frontal lobe can cause erratic behavior.

Wikipedia - Phineas Gage

Yes yes yes. I have Multiple Sclerosis and I guess you could say I get head injuries on a regular basis. My body attacks my brain and spinal cord leaving scars or lesions. What ever part of my brain is attacked causes ISSUES!

Sometimes my body then repairs those areas by re-circuiting around the scar but other times it does not leaving permanent damage. I have been blind, unable to feel my legs, unable to taste and smell, etc. I am not depressed because I have M.S. the M.S. chemically causes depression which cannot be treated without chemically replacing the missing hormone levels that my brain no longer transmits instructions to my hormone glands to produce. Does that make sense?

[edit on 15-10-2008 by Bachrk]

I've had several serious knocks to my noggin - and I'm a perfectly normal jellyfish...

Yep I think it's fairly common for people to have mental complications aafter head injury, I've heard of one guy who turned into a sex addict and eventually a rapist, also as someone mentioned earlier a common one is for people to loose compassion and empathy - some even turn into psycopaths!! Another weird one was a small girl hit her head somehow any started writing and drawing everything backwards, hit her head again and it fixed it's self, it's a bloody weird organ the brain, doubt we'll ever understand it. My faverote is the one where people spontanisly change to a forgen accent.

I personally suffer from horrendous tinitus, I always wonder if it came from a pretty sever knock across the back of my head that knocked my out as a kid - I never got it lookd at cos my older cousin didn't want to get into trouble!!

Originally posted by Now_Then
. My faverote is the one where people spontanisly change to a forgen accent.

I personally suffer from horrendous tinitus, I always wonder if it came from a pretty sever knock across the back of my head that knocked my out as a kid - I never got it lookd at cos my older cousin didn't want to get into trouble!!

This reminded me when I identified smells with colors. I didn't even realize at the time I was doing. Such as if we walked in and my daughter was baking a cake I'd say "I smell blue" instead of saying an appropriate response such as "I smell chocolate"

I have also smelled sounds. Try explaining that to the family! Although since being sick my dreams are so vivid and I can control them.

I presume you already know - but for the benifit of others that is known as Synesthesia, it is a very interesting condition - I personally assosiate certain colours and at times smells to the ringing in my head - but only for the internal noises, none of the 'real' external noises.

Do you enjoy those experences? I've heard some people have a lot of fun with it! They can really appreciate the most bizzare things!

Edit: fixed linky



[edit on 15/10/2008 by Now_Then]

I have a sister who sustained major busing during delivery with forceps. She turned blues and had sezures. She has had problems since she was a little girls. Due to her behavior, her second grade teacher asked my parents to get her help. It was never done. Now close to 60 years old, not able to control her impulses, she still has fits of rage. She has never been able to hold down a job. Her OCD out of control has caused her to have a closet full of clothes and shoes, yet she doesn't pay her bills and so has never owned a house or car or anything substantial. Although there have been many, many family talks about trying to help her it is easier to sweep it all under the carpet at the risk of sending her into depression. She has a warp sense of entitlement, is self-centered, tells stories, is envious and has sociopathic tendencies. Although she puts on a front that she is perfectly normal, I'm sure she knows she is not. Our whole family enables her. What to do?

Bachelor and all others who have loved ones who have suffered a Brain Injury or Damage if in the UK:

HeadWay

A wonderful charity helping those affected and their loved ones,

in the USA:

Brain Injury Association of America

Really do use the resources out there.

One thing many people with this sort of experience find is that the "labels" put on them or expectations of families and friends, causes psychological trauma which can affect any long term recovery.

OP well done for standing up for your sister’s right to be herself again.

I broke my leg some years ago. It was an injury. Sure I didn’t walk right for a while after but that healed and all is fine now.

Why should the brain be any different?

Remember though behaviour is not always Mechanical and it could be psychological in nature, the lack of self esteem, the life disruptions, pain, stress, fear, PTSD after brain surgery.

I really cant say this strongly enough it is vitally important that in the first few years of recovery from major brain trauma, no additional psychological factors are allowed to stop the healing, or even to create behaviour and ways of being that could be blamed on Brain Injury, but are just the same things as the normal strange behaviour in major life events like Death of a Parent or sibling, divorce etc.

Patience, total support and no judgements till you have given the three or so years necessary for the "injury" to heal.

Then make assumptions about long term affects not before.

So much is misunderstood on this topic for example:

Check this out:

Doctors attending a 39-year-old Chinese woman complaining of feeling weak found she had just half a brain!

Moreover, the woman from Wuhan city (eastern China) bears a completely normal life and only visited the hospital when she felt weak and stiff.

But she really misses the left hemisphere of her brain. "On the MRI scans we were surprised to see that she only has grey matter on the right side. Our usual understanding is that the left brain controls language. But this patient has no problem communicating with people.",

said Zhang Linhong, director of Neural Rehabilitation Department at the local hospital, told ANANOVA.

Source

Only one hemisphere present and normal!

This is not the only case to, there are many that may surprise you:

This case comes after in July 2007 a French team discovered a 44-year-old male patient with an unusually tiny brain: just a quarter of the normal size. Still, the man had an entirely normal life.

The man was a married man, father of two children and worked as a civil servant. He went to the hospital after he felt mild weakness in his left leg. While a child, the man has had a shunt inserted into his head to drain away hydrocephalus (water in the brain) and the shunt was removed when he was 14 years old.

The man scored 75 at IQ tests, below the average score of 100 but not classifying him as mentally retarded or disabled. The whole brain was reduced, frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes, on both left and right hemispheres. These areas control motion, sensibility, language, vision, audition, and emotional and cognitive functions. It seems that the brain's plasticity adapted to some damage. The Chinese case just comes to reinforce this idea.

!!!!

Drop your labels and preconceptions against Brain injury all please!

There also was a Case though I can’t find the source I read about years ago. In Victorian London an Autopsy was carried out on an extremely successful Lawyer, he was a high flyer, had his own practise was feared by rivals for his legal ability and knowledge.

He had the entire Right hemisphere of his brain missing since birth. Again married with Kids, infact he was known as the best debater in the local chambers of commerce!

Brain injury, obviously depending on the specific case, is no different to any other injury, some people like me with very serious fractures to their legs are fine afterwards, and some never walk again.

But just because it’s an injury to the brain does not mean that it can’t heal like all injuries, again it specific for each person but not all encompassing.

And not in relation to actual trauma or injury but progressive damage to the brain look at this and be astounded:

Dr. John Lorber, a British neurologist who published a controversial paper

"Is Your Brain Really Necessary?"

back in 1980. Dr. Lorber's work centered on hydrocephalism, where abnormal amounts of fluid cause damage to the brain - sometimes actually replacing the tissue.

One case he presented, for example, involved a young man with an IQ of 126 who had achieved a first-class honors degree in mathematics (a difficult accomplishment indeed) and lived a normal life in spite of the fact that his brain was less than 1/10 normal size.

His cranium was filled mainly with cerebrospinal fluid, leaving a layer of brain tissue near the skull only about 4/100 of an inch thick.

Among those whose craniums were 95% filled with cerebrospinal fluid, half had IQs above 100

Source


And further back on truly massive head injuries and recovery:

Ahad Israfil is a gunshot victim from Dayton, Ohio, famous for his remarkable recovery from an injury that led to the loss of almost half his brain (one cerebral hemisphere).

In 1987, aged 14, Ahad was shot in the head at work when his employer accidentally knocked a fire-arm to the floor. Despite the severity of his injuries, he survived the trip to hospital and underwent a 5 hour operation. As he regained consciousness, doctors were amazed when he attempted to speak

The injury destroyed brain tissue and one half of his skull, but the skin of his scalp survived and collapsed inwards when the underlying tissue was removed. As a result, after the hole in his head had been filled in with a silicone block, the flap of skin was pulled over and hair regrew, giving him a fairly normal appearance.

Although he now uses a wheelchair, he has regained most of his faculties and has successfully obtained a degree."

Source

OP if you really think your sister is no different, as shown above there is every possibility it is so.

But these cases are rare so do be sure you are not in denial yourself first, but if you are sure then you know if any changes have occurred better than any double PhD supposed expert, let her know others have got through, and help her emotionally to rebuild her life, which is where the real damage may be, not mechanistically.


If there are changes though use the links at the top of this post and get some help support and like minded people around her.

Kind Regards,

Elf.


[edit on 27-10-2008 by MischeviousElf]

Bumpity bump

I really think some people especially who like alternative things will be interested in the information in my above post.

amazing actually?

Elf