cognitive impairment bipolar
For victims of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their families, side effects, such as bipolar disorder and memory loss are tragic, but well known and understood. But in recent decades, scientists have begun studying other serious side effect of brain damage that may go unnoticed: schizophrenia.
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia (from Greek: "Shattered Mind") is a psychotic disorder that affects behavior, mood and thought. The term was originally coined as "the schizophrenias" because of the wide variety of symptoms characterization of the disease. The best known symptom, auditory hallucinations ( "hearing voices"), may not even be present in all those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Psychologists to break symptoms of schizophrenia into three categories:
* Positive symptoms are behaviors that are not present in normal individuals. These include hallucinations, delusions and thought disorder or disorganized thinking.
* Negative symptoms are symptoms showing loss of normal abilities. These include the loss of the ability to show or feel emotion, lack of motivation and problems speech.
* Neurocognitive defects are problems with brain function in areas such as memory, problem solving, attention and performance social.
Schizophrenia Related to Brain Injury Patients
Scientists have established that psychiatric conditions such as bipolar and anxiety disorders are more common in patients who have suffered traumatic brain injuries. We also know that patients with schizophrenia have a high incidence previous brain damage, regardless of whether they have other strong predictors of schizophrenia, such as family history of disease or masculinity. But it is only since the early 1990s that researchers have begun to explore in depth the connection between brain damage caused by traumatic brain injury and schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia and Brain Injury: Recent Studies
* The results of these studies:
* TBI associated with schizophrenia schizophrenia is certainly not another disorder with similar symptoms, according to a 2001 study by Columbia University. The scientists observed that traumatic brain injury was associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, suggesting that a condition increases the possibility of a person to develop the other.
* Another study in the same year at the University of New South Wales in Australia found that patients with TBI schizophrenia-like psychosis had more brain damage generalized cognitive impairment of TBI patients without psychosis. He also suggested that family history of schizophrenia and severity of brain damage suffered during TBI increased the risk of schizophrenia.
* Scientists at the Hawaii State Hospital in 2002 which was an average of four to five years after traumatic brain injury for psychosis to manifest, with most cases coming within two years. Scientists in this study suggests that damage in frontal and temporal areas of the brain, and the system that regulates dopamine, can cause psychosis.
While the complex nature of schizophrenia is caused unclear, because the latest study suggests there is no evidence to believe that brain injury directly causes schizophrenia, by damaging brain areas that control higher functions. There is also evidence that a traumatic brain injury may cause psychosis indirectly. Scientists believe that schizophrenia is caused by a combination of genetic susceptibility to disease and physically or emotionally traumatic experience that triggers this susceptibility. Some studies the two conditions suggest that traumatic brain injury and its complications can act as a trigger of this type.
Many doctors do not know Injur traumatic the brain may cause neurocognitive disorders such as speech problems, and psychiatric problems like bipolar disorder, but not all are aware of increasing evidence linking schizophrenia with brain damage. Patients with TBI and their families should be sure to include a qualified psychiatrist in his plans for the treatment of brain injury. Moreover, brain injury patients and their families, Shaud consult a lawyer experienced in brain injury in an attempt to recover costs for expenses such as lost wages, current medical expenses and medical care in the future.
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Schizophrenia and Traumatic Brain Injury
