People injured in accidents, do not just sustain physical injuries but also emotional trauma and or neuropsychological trauma.
Neuropsychological sequalea resulting from traumatic brain injuries impact negatively on a person’s neurocognitive, emotional and interpersonal functioning. Brain injuries can lead to a number of problems and can occur for hours and even days after the accident as the brain swells. The most common symptoms include cognitive, memory and attentional and language problems, personality changes and emotional control problems, physical problems, problems in everyday living, problems with motivation and self-control, social problems.
The evaluation of any neuropsychological sequalea after a traumatic brain injury involves:
• Clinical history
• Clinical observations
• Psychometric evaluation consisting of:
- Neurocognitive tests that are administered.
- Tests that will indicate emotional functioning and
- An interview or telephonic interview with someone at work or in the person’s personal life.
Clinical evaluations are used to determine any clinical psychiatric symptom that is the result of emotional trauma sustained during the accident. These symptoms may be indicative of disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety, Depression and or Dysthymia or even Psychotic Disorders.
The effect that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTDS) have on a person’s life is far-reaching and debilitating in many different areas of a person’s life. Research has shown that people with PTSD are at much greater risk for developing other mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and substance abuse. They are also six time likely to attempt suicide. PTSD can also cause physical problems such as diabetes, obesity, heart problems, respiratory problems and sexual dysfunction. PTSD also has an effect on the brain and especially in the Hippocampus which is responsible for the storing and retrieving of memories. There are some studies which suggest that the constant experience of stress such as in people with PTSD, may damage the Hippocampus. With stress the body releases cortisol and with high levels of cortisol, animal studies show damage or destruction of cells in the Hippocampus. Researchers also found that people with chronic and severe PTSD have smaller hippocampi. Apart from physical problems, PTSD also greatly interfere with a person’s ability to work and maintain relationships as they often complain about concentrating, sleeping and attention problems. The stressors caused by PTSD such as financial strain, inability to deal with crisis, loss of friends due to irritability and social withdrawn as well as loss of intimacy have a very negative impact on a person’s relationships both at work and sociably.
The evaluation of any clinical disorder after the accident involves:
• Clinical history.
• Clinical impressions.
• Psychometric evaluations consisting of:
- Test that indicate emotional and personality functioning.
- Test that indicate the presence of any psychiatric disorder.
- Test that indicate the person’s stress management.
- An interview or telephonic interview with someone at work or in the person’s personal life.