| For victims of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their | | | | scientists observed that traumatic brain injury was |
| families, side effects such as bipolar disorder and | | | | associated with a greater risk of schizophrenia, |
| memory loss are tragic, but well known and well | | | | suggesting that one condition increases a person |
| understood. But in the last decades, scientists have | | | | chances of developing the other. |
| begun to study another serious side effect of brain | | | | * Another study in the same year at the University |
| damage that may go undetected: schizophrenia. | | | | of New South Wales in Australia discovered that TBI |
| What is Schizophrenia? | | | | patients with schizophrenia-like psychosis had more |
| Schizophrenia (Greek for "shattered mind") is a | | | | widespread brain damage and cognitive impairment |
| psychotic disorder that affects behavior, mood and | | | | than TBI patients without psychosis. It also |
| thinking. The term was originally coined as "the | | | | suggested that a family history of schizophrenia and |
| schizophrenias" because of the wide variety of | | | | the severity of the brain damage sustained during |
| symptoms characterizing the condition. The most | | | | TBI increased the risk of schizophrenia. |
| widely known symptom, auditory hallucination | | | | * Scientists at the Hawaii State Hospital found in |
| ("hearing voices"), may not even be present in all | | | | 2002 that it took an average of four to five years |
| who have a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Psychologists | | | | after a traumatic brain injury for psychosis to |
| break symptoms of schizophrenia into three | | | | manifest, with most cases arriving within two years. |
| categories: | | | | The scientists in that study proposed that damage to |
| * Positive symptoms are behaviors that are not | | | | frontal and temporal areas of the brain, and to the |
| present in normal individuals. They include auditory | | | | system that regulates dopamine, can cause |
| hallucinations, delusions and thought disorder, or | | | | psychosis. |
| disorganized thinking. | | | | While the complex nature of schizophrenia makes its |
| * Negative symptoms are symptoms showing loss of | | | | cause unclear, as the last study suggests, there is |
| normal abilities. They include loss of ability to show or | | | | evidence to believe that brain injury directly causes |
| feel emotion, lack of motivation and trouble with | | | | schizophrenia, by damaging the areas of the brain |
| speaking. | | | | that control higher functions. There is also evidence |
| * Neurocognitive defects are problems with brain | | | | that a traumatic brain injury may cause psychosis |
| function in areas such as memory, problem-solving, | | | | indirectly. Scientists believe that schizophrenia is |
| attention and social functioning. | | | | caused by a combination of genetic susceptibility to |
| Schizophrenia Related to Brain Injury in Patients | | | | the disease and an emotionally or physically traumatic |
| Scientists have established that psychiatric conditions | | | | experience that triggers this susceptibility. Some |
| such as bipolar and anxiety disorders are more | | | | studies exploring the two conditions suggest that |
| common in patients who have suffered from | | | | traumatic brain injury and its complications may act as |
| traumatic brain injuries. We also know that patients | | | | such a trigger. |
| with schizophrenia have a high incidence of past brain | | | | Many physicians know a traumatic brain injur may |
| damage, regardless of whether they have other | | | | cause neurocognitive disorders such as trouble with |
| strong predictors for schizophrenia, such as a family | | | | speech, and psychiatric problems like bipolar disorder, |
| history of the disorder or maleness. But it is only | | | | but not all are aware of the growing evidence linking |
| since the early 1990s that researchers have begun to | | | | schizophrenia with brain damage. TBI patients and |
| explore in depth that connection between brain | | | | their families should be sure to include a qualified |
| damage caused by traumatic brain injury and | | | | psychiatrist in their plans for brain damage treatment. |
| schizophrenia. | | | | In addition, brain injury patients and their families |
| Schizophrenia and Brain Injury: Recent Studies | | | | shoud consult an experienced brain injury attorney as |
| * Among the findings of those studies: | | | | they seek to recover costs for expenses such as |
| * TBI-associated schizophrenia is true schizophrenia, | | | | lost wages, current medical costs and future medical |
| not another disorder with similar symptoms, according | | | | care. |
| to a 2001 study by Columbia University. The | | | | |