Stroke and Brain Injury

Stroke and brain injury are the result of injury to the brain. In stroke the injury can be a result of excessive bleeding. In Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) the injury is the result of an impact to the brain. TBI can be characterized by a period of unconsciousness and/or significant levels on the Glasgow Coma Scale. Depending on the severity of the impact, there may be evidence of deterioration or post traumatic amnesia within 48 hours of the occurrence.

TBI can be characterized by physical/somatic, cognitive and emotional or personality changes. Physical symptoms can include seizures, headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbances, dizziness, sensitivity to light or noise, nauea, blurred vision, vomiting, tinnitis, and loss of libido. Cognitive symptoms can include impaired short term memory, attention and concentration, slower information processing, language impairment, forgetfulness, and distractibility. Emotional or peronality symptoms can include irritability, anxiety, mood swings, depression, reduced frustration tolerance, and explosive temper.

Damage to the brain occurs at the point of impact abut also along other cortical and subcortical aras that are either sheared by the effects of impact or at other brain sites by impact on the skull These are called diffuse axonal injury and coup-contra coup effects.

How can neurofeedbackk help TBI? The use of a quantitative electoencephalogram (QEEG) to analyze brain activity helps to identify the cortical activity as compared to a normative database. The differences in the QEEG reullts can more closely coincide with the symptom and complaints otherwise overlooked by CAT, MRI and EEGs. The QEEG can identify the affected cortical areas and the specific brainwave difficulties which then serves as a guide to normalize and retrain the brain activity.

Treatment of TBI requires a thorough evaluation which includes medical history, neuropsychological assessments, mental status examinations, and information from relevant medical professionals as well as the QEEG results.