How a Traumatic Brain Injury Can Affect Personality
March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. So, it’s appropriate that our blog this month discusses how a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) can affect personality.
Did you know that every day in the United States, 153 people die from injuries that include TBI’s? The US Centers for Disease Control states “A TBI is caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head that disrupts the normal function of the brain. Not all blows or jolts to the head result in a TBI.” TBI’s can also be caused by any object that penetrates brain tissue, such as a bullet. The CDC further states, “The severity of a TBI may range from “mild” (i.e., a brief change in mental status or consciousness) to “severe” (i.e., an extended period of unconsciousness or memory loss after the injury). Most TBI’s that occur each year are mild, commonly called concussions.”
TBI-related deaths and injuries vary by age but the leading cause of deaths for the year 2013 for persons 5-24 years old was motor vehicle crashes. And, motor vehicle crashes were also the leading cause of hospitalizations for 2103 for persons 15-44 years old.
People lucky enough to survive a TBI can also be unlucky in terms of the short- and long-term effects on their lives and their families’ lives due to the wide-ranging physical and psychological effects caused by a TBI. Slight to unmistakable changes in a person’s personality can be one effect that might be noticed days to even weeks or months following the injury.
Scientific studies and scholarly literature review articles have looked at how a TBI can affect a person’s personality. One recent literature review article from 2015 states, “Personality changes are attributed to a TBI when the injury causes obvious and marked changes in the patient’s pre-injury characteristic behavior (Prigatano, 1992); these changes in personality can be temporary or permanent. Others who are familiar with the individual’s daily behavioral characteristics may recognize emotional and motivational responses that the person may not be fully aware of or able to report subjectively. Most often, permanent changes are attributed to damage to the limbic and frontal cortex systems of the brain and most often involve affective deficits.”
The same article concluded, “While many TBI patients do experience drastic personality and/ or behavioral changes, it is still not clear whether these changes are permanent or if the patient will eventually return to their pre-injury characteristic functioning. These outcomes appear to depend on a variety of factors, including familial and social support and premorbid functioning and pathology. New research is being conducted constantly to discover new and more concrete methods to treat this population and address the many changes and deficits that they are struggling to overcome. What can be said for certain is that no one intervention or area of treatment is going to be satisfactory in TBI rehabilitation, rather, it will take the cooperation of many different health care providers and care givers to establish a well-rounded and complete rehabilitation program that is tailored to the individual patient’s needs and focuses not only on developed skill deficits but any subsequent behavioral or personality changes as well.”
One thing is for certain, traumatic brain injuries whether mild or severe, present complex legal, psychological, and medical issues that should be addressed with medical, mental health, and legal professionals.
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