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About Acquired Brain Injury

Headway South Bucks mirrors Headway's UKs overall mission to promote understanding of all aspects of brain injury and to provide information, support and services to people with a brain injury, their families and carers.

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Definitions

Brain injury is defined as any injury happening to the brain, which causes brain damage.

Brain Injury is further categorised as mild, moderate and severe and described by the location of the damage.

Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is defined as brain damage caused by an event happening after birth.

For a more comprehensive list of brain injury terms, please refer to Headway UK Common Brain Injury terms page.

 

Causes

The causes of ABI are normally split into two groups:

  • Traumatic ABI- a result of physical trauma to the head and brain:

    • Motor Vehicle accidents

    • Accidents at work or home

    • Sports Activities

    • Falls

    • Physical Assault

  • Non Traumatic ABI - damage to the brain caused by internal or external sources:

    • Brain tumour

    • Stroke

    • Seizures

    • Infection - eg Meningitis

    • Aneurysm/Haemorrhage

    • Oxygen deprivation

    • Exposure to certain poisons

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Prevalence

It is estimated that one million people in the UK are admitted to hospital each year as a result of head injury. Men are 3 times more likely to suffer a brain injury than women. This risk is greatest between ages 15 and 29 and starts to increase again for men and women over the age of 65. 50% of traumatic brain injury is caused by road traffic accidents.

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Headway's overall mission is to to promote understanding of all aspects of brain injury and to provide information, support and services to people with a brain injury, their families and carers.

For further information, please visit Headway - the brain injury association's website. 

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Effects of a Brain Injury

The effects of a brain injury can be wide ranging, and depend on a number of factors such as the type, location and severity of injury. Every injury is unique and the range of symptoms the person will experience will be dependent on the type, location and severity of the injury.

Effects are normally divided into the following categories:

  • Cognitive effects -

    • this can include changes to speed of thought, memory, understanding, concentration, problem solving, using language

  • Emotional and behavioural Effects -

    • ABI can provoke personality changes, difficulty managing emotions, depression, lack of motivation, disinhibition, anxiety and lack of awareness.

  • Physical effects -

    • ABI survivors can experience fatigue, headaches, speaking and swallowing disorders, movement and balance disorders, paralysis and weakness, loss of sensation and epilepsy.

Some people make an excellent physical recovery after a brain injury, which can mean there are few, or no, outwards signs that an injury has occurred. The effects of brain injury can be subtle and not always very apparent.

To find out much more about Brain Injury please visit Headway - the brain injury association's website. 

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