Acquired brain injury is a term used to express all types of damage to the brain acquired after birth. It includes both damage from traumatic brain injury and non traumatic brain injury. Causes of traumatic brain injury could be, for instance, accidents, falls, or assaults. On the other hand, non traumatic causes of brain injury include stroke, brain tumors, infection, poisoning, hypoxia, ischemia or substance abuse. Most definitions of acquired brain injury would also include neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and Schizophrenia, among many others.
Acquired brain injury should not be confused with intellectual disability, although there is sometimes a debate about this (from the point of view of service provision) when the acquired brain injury occurs at any early stage and the effects are similar. However, it is useful to remember this - people with brain injury may have difficulty controlling, coordinating and communicating their thoughts and actions - but they usually retain their intellectual abilities.
The effects of acquired brain injury are dramatically different from person to person, and no two people can expect the same outcome or resulting difficulties. The brain controls every part of human life and when the brain is damaged some other part of a person's life will be adversely affected. This can happen even with a relatively minor injury. Acquired brain injury is often called the 'hidden disability' because its long-term problems are usually in the areas of thinking and behavior and are not as easy to see and recognize (even for health professionals) as many physical disabilities.
The difficulties people with acquired brain injury face are easily ignored or misunderstood. Even family members and friends may regard a person with acquired brain injury who exhibits cognitive problems or changed behavior as lazy, selfish or hard to get along with.
People with acquired brain injury may experience many long-term effects such as medical difficulties, impaired physical and sensory abilities, changes in cognition, behavior, personality and communication.
Long term effects will be different for each person but some of the more common ones are: memory problems, fatigue, poor concentration and attention, lack of initiative and motivation, irritability, inappropriate behavior and poor social skills, self-centredness, dependency and lack of insight, slowed responses, poor problem solving, depression and lack of emotional control, and impulsivity. Some of the more common physical effects may be loss of taste and smell, dizziness and balance problems, epilepsy and seizures, fatigue, headaches, visual problems, chronic pain, or paralysis problems.
As you can see, an acquired brain injury is never a trivial matter, for the affected person or for those who have to care for them.
