Brain Injury

In a recent interview with the New York Times, comedienne Tiffany Haddish revealed that her mother suffered a severe traumatic brain injury years ago  following a car crash. The mother developed schizophrenia, a severe personality disorder, as a result of the crash. The results were so severe that Haddish and her siblings were placed in…

A fascinating story in Scientific American profiled a woman who was blinded by a stroke, but developed an unusual condition. She can see moving objects such as “steam rising from a coffee cup” but she can’t the cup itself. The condition, called “Riddoch phenomenon,” is very rare. Just a few people are known to have…

Although traumatic brain injury (TBI) and short-term risk of dementia have long been linked, a new study in the PLOS Medicine Journal shows that a TBI can increase the risk of developing the disease even up to 30 years later. The research found that, although the risk does decrease as time goes by, there is…

For 20 years or more, research has linked traumatic brain injury (TBI) with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or any type of dementia in the years following a head injury. A group of researchers from the University of Arizona in the United States and College of Basic Medicine Jiamusi University in China undertook…

According to BrainLine.org, losing the ability to taste and smell affects up to one in four traumatic brain injury victims. A University of Montreal study confirmed that the loss of these two senses can follow a TBI. The study of 49 people showed that slightly over half the patients with a TBI lost their sense…

Make no mistake about it: very severe brain injuries show up on magnetic resonance imaging scans, called MRIs. They can show brain bleeding; they can show brain bruising. But that doesn’t mean that every traumatic brain injury is gonna show up on an MRI scan. MRIs find stuff that’s macroscopic – that’s seen by the…

One of the positive benefits of all the attention on concussion and traumatic brain injury in NFL players, is that the public is becoming increasingly aware of the devastating and long-term effects TBI can inflict. Depression is one of the effects of a traumatic brain injury. Depression can show up weeks, months or even a…

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ National Center for PTSD reports that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan resulted in increasing numbers of Veterans with traumatic brain injuries. The U.S. Department of Defense estimates that 22% of all combat casualties from these conflicts were from brain injuries as compared to about 12% of Vietnam-related combat casualties.…