According to studies conducted by Professor Roger Wood, a head injury specialist, and Claire Williams from Swansea University, many traumatic brain injury patients experience personality changes as well as suffer from emotional processing issues. A loss of emotional attachment, which family members have described as lack of love or warmth, as well as a decreased ability to experience empathy, are some of the problems that can arise. These emotional processing issues not only cause relationship difficulties between TBI patients and their families, but they can make recovery more challenging.
In one of the studies conducted by Wood and Williams, they discovered TBI patients had a hard time recognizing the emotions that people on video and in pictures were exhibiting. This impairment did not appear to be related to general cognitive deficits, the seriousness of the TBI, or the time that had lapsed since the head injury occurred.
Williams and Wood say that alexithymia, a personality trait that makes it hard for people to describe their own feelings, appears to be more common in TBI patients.
Traumatic Brain Injuries
Traumatic brain injuries can occur as a result of car accidents, truck crashes, pedestrian accidents, motorcycle collisions, medical malpractice, birthing malpractice, serious fall accidents, drowning accidents, choking accidents, or other kinds of Washington DC injury accidents.
Living with a TBI can seriously impair a person’s ability to live a normal life. In many serious traumatic brain injury cases, the annual medical costs for taking care of a TBI patient can be astronomical. The lives and well-being of family members and close friends are also seriously affected.
Traumatic Brain Injury leads to problems with emotional processing, Psychology Today, January 3, 2010
Related Web Resources:
The Balanced Emotional Empathy Test (BEES) and Optional Software
Traumatic Brain Injury, Mayo Clinic
You can hold the party responsible for causing the brain injury liable by filing a Washington DC traumatic brain injury lawsuit.