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A Traumatic Brain Injury

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A traumatic brain injury (“TBI”) occurs when the brain is somehow injured, rattled, or wounded from an external source of force. The means of acquisition and the severity of TBIs are unique to each patient; therefore, symptoms and rehabilitation can vary greatly depending on the patient’s condition following the incident and how they sustained the injury. The severity of a TBI is generally classified into one of three categories: mild, moderate, or severe, and this type of diagnostic criteria influences how a patient with TBI is treated by medical staff and rehabilitation specialists. TBIs can affect a specific part of the brain that was directly impacted, leaving the patients with only one or a few areas of impairment, or the damage can …show more content…

Percentages of favorable recovery outcomes in the “other incidents” group ranged from 26% for gunshot wounds to 100% for shaken baby syndrome (Madjan et al. 804). This wide range of scores indicates that the “other incidents” category was likely too generalized to produce significant results.
The above mentioned research study did not control for the age of traumatic brain injury patients in such a way that patients could be compared on this basis. Research on brain damage (due to traumatic brain injury, substance abuse, and other means of neurological harm) and the effects of age on the likelihood of extensive recovery has been conducted over the past several decades in the fields of both medicine and psychology, and conflicting evidence exists. Some studies suggest that young brains are more vulnerable to irreversible brain damage due to the underdevelopment of neurons and brain structures, while other studies indicate that the brains of older individuals are less “plastic” than in younger individuals, making them less resilient to damage. To study the outcomes of pediatric traumatic brain injury as opposed to traumatic brain injury in adulthood, Catroppa et al. conducted research on children that had suffered a TBI between the ages of one and seven years. Participants were recruited

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