Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury

This is the most common cause of neuropsychiatric disability, and a major part of the workload of those psychiatrists practicing neuropsychiatry in this country. The prevalence has been estimated at 437 per 100,000 hospital presentations for mild TBI per year and possibly 700 per 100,000 first medical consultations for TBI per year in New Zealand. The assessment and rehabilitation of affected individuals is largely the responsibility of the Accident Compensation and Rehabilitation Corporation. The main NGO assisting individuals and their families is Brain Injury New Zealand and in Auckland we have Headway. The Waikato is covered by Brain Injury Waikato. Private providers with residential facilities include Goodwood Park Healthcare and ABI Rehabilitation.

The New Zealand TBI management guidelines were updated by the New Zealand Guidelines Group in a evidence based best-practice guideline published in July 2006 and this is a useful overview of knowledge and recommendations. Specific advice on medication was avoided as the literature is quite patchy and so recommendations would need to be based on adequate clinical experience; similarly a RANZCP exercise in 2017 had difficuty making concrete evidence based recommendations.

The UK group of psychiatrists with an interest in TBI, led by Simon Fleminger, have modified the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales, becoming a widely used tool in mental health services and service planning, for acquired brain injury.

SUGGESTED READING

For those affected and their families:
  • Trevor Powell - The Brain Injury Workbook. Speechmark, 2017.
  • Nigel King - Overcoming Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Little, Brown, 2015.
  • Douglas Mason - The Mild Trumatic Brain Injury Workbook. New Harbinger 2004.
  • Gronwall D, Wrightson P, and Waddell P- Head Injury: the facts. Second edition. Oxford, 1998
  • Diane Roberts Stoller - Coping with Concussion and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Avery, 2013.
For professionals:
  • Zasler ND, Katz DI, Zafonte RD et al (eds): Brain Injury Medicine 2nd ed. Demos Medical, 2012.
  • Sherer M and Sander AM - Handbook on the Neuropsychology of Traumatic Brain Injury. Springer, 2014.
  • Silver JM, McAllister TW and Arciniegas DB - The Textbook of Traumatic Brain Injury. 3rd ed. APPI, 2018.
  • Ponsford J, Sloan S and Snow P - Traumatic Brain Injury: Rehabilitation for Everyday Adaptive Living 2nd ed. Taylor & Francis 2012.
  • Wrightson P and Gronwall D Mild Head Injury; a guide to management. Oxford, 1999.
Historical aspects:
  • Trimble MR - Post-traumatic neurosis: from railway spine to the whiplash. Wiley, 1981.
Additional Journals:

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