Psychological consequences of brain injury

Abstract

The most complex human functions — which are the most difficult to quantify — are also the most vulnerable to trauma. As the severity of injury increases, so does the likelihood that basic functional activities will also be disrupted. In addition, psychological disorders hamper the individual’s ability to develop methods to compensate for functional, vocational and interpersonal skills deficits. Central to the individual’s problems is the inability to adapt to novel circumstances. The brain-injured individual may be unable to determine what is interfering with his functioning and as a result be unable to change his behaviour to improve performance. This chapter describes some of the psychological deficits which may affect individuals after brain injury. An attempt is made to relate the more abstract description of deficits to the patient’s actual difficulties in functional activities. This chapter discusses the psychological sequelae of brain injury under the headings of arousal and attention, perception, memory and information processing, language and problem solving. Although these functions are described separately, it should be remembered that the human brain is an integrated unit and division by cognitive function is only on a conceptual level (Stuss and Benson, 1987).