Brain Trauma and Behavioral Aberration
I have just read an article in the August edition of Denver Voice, on brain trauma. Denver Voice is committed to empowering homeless, impoverished and transient individuals by creating job opportunities through their Vendor Program. Vendors buy Denver Voice for 25 cents, which pays for part of production cost and sell the paper to the public for a one dollar donation. 75 cents is theirs to keep.
Homelessness is common in the developed economies and occurs when one cannot afford for housing and so lives in public places or wherever they find convenient to them. Organizations like the Council, religious bodies and NGO's have come up with programs to provide shelter to those who cannot afford it. The problem of homelessness is the more acute now because of the bad economy.
Studies have invariably shown that most homeless people in North America(both USA and Canada) have had brain trauma of one form or another. The symptoms of brain trauma mirror very closely those of schizophrenia. In developing countries, most mad(schizophrenic) people live out of homes.
Trauma patients and schizophrenic patients may have similar symptoms like tantrum(excessive anger), noisiness and violence. These make them anti-social and because of that they are generally ostracized by the society. They lose their jobs because of forgetfulness and inability to accomplish the required job tasks. Since they may not afford it or do not feel like it, they typically lose or leave behind the privilege of a home. And as they are anti-social, no one would be willing to let them in, in their own homes, to stay with them. They therefore roam the streets, withdrawn from the mainstream, and feeling that their predicament is being poorly understood by the society.
Although the causes are quite different, symptoms in traumatic brain injury patients and schizophrenic(mad) people are very similar. While schizophrenic patients have over-activity of the brain, due to raised brain amines levels that lead to hallucinations(e.g hearing voices) and delusions and making the sufferers to lose touch with reality, these same symptoms in brain trauma patients are due to increased firing of the brain cell because of the damage caused to the brain tissue.
Brain trauma patients who have been misdiagnosed and treated as if they were schizophrenic, by being given drugs that block the over-activity of brain amines, do not get any better. When brain trauma is correctly diagnosed and the patients are given drugs that stop the spontaneous firing of nerve cells in the brain, the same drugs used to treat epilepsy, their symptoms get better and the sufferers can resume normal function, take up routine daily activities and their behavior invariably improves .
Brain trauma patients usually have slurred speech, are forgetful, disinterested in life and may walk crookedly as if drugged. Brain trauma symptoms result from longstanding trauma, due to repetitive blows or a severe trauma, to the head.
Other forms of brain injury which may show similar symptoms, more or less, include stroke, longstanding infectious disease like syphilis or chronic intake of some drugs like alcohol and cocaine that cause anatomically identifiable damage to the brain cell.
Acute drug intoxication or inflammation from an acute infection, can also lead to over-firing of the brain cells, which will lead to the confusion and instability that is characteristic in these disorders but, unlike chronic disorders, there may be no obvious lesion in the brain cell that can be held accountable for the symptoms.
Dr Oliver Verbe Birnso,MD
Homelessness is common in the developed economies and occurs when one cannot afford for housing and so lives in public places or wherever they find convenient to them. Organizations like the Council, religious bodies and NGO's have come up with programs to provide shelter to those who cannot afford it. The problem of homelessness is the more acute now because of the bad economy.
Studies have invariably shown that most homeless people in North America(both USA and Canada) have had brain trauma of one form or another. The symptoms of brain trauma mirror very closely those of schizophrenia. In developing countries, most mad(schizophrenic) people live out of homes.
Trauma patients and schizophrenic patients may have similar symptoms like tantrum(excessive anger), noisiness and violence. These make them anti-social and because of that they are generally ostracized by the society. They lose their jobs because of forgetfulness and inability to accomplish the required job tasks. Since they may not afford it or do not feel like it, they typically lose or leave behind the privilege of a home. And as they are anti-social, no one would be willing to let them in, in their own homes, to stay with them. They therefore roam the streets, withdrawn from the mainstream, and feeling that their predicament is being poorly understood by the society.
Although the causes are quite different, symptoms in traumatic brain injury patients and schizophrenic(mad) people are very similar. While schizophrenic patients have over-activity of the brain, due to raised brain amines levels that lead to hallucinations(e.g hearing voices) and delusions and making the sufferers to lose touch with reality, these same symptoms in brain trauma patients are due to increased firing of the brain cell because of the damage caused to the brain tissue.
Brain trauma patients who have been misdiagnosed and treated as if they were schizophrenic, by being given drugs that block the over-activity of brain amines, do not get any better. When brain trauma is correctly diagnosed and the patients are given drugs that stop the spontaneous firing of nerve cells in the brain, the same drugs used to treat epilepsy, their symptoms get better and the sufferers can resume normal function, take up routine daily activities and their behavior invariably improves .
Brain trauma patients usually have slurred speech, are forgetful, disinterested in life and may walk crookedly as if drugged. Brain trauma symptoms result from longstanding trauma, due to repetitive blows or a severe trauma, to the head.
Other forms of brain injury which may show similar symptoms, more or less, include stroke, longstanding infectious disease like syphilis or chronic intake of some drugs like alcohol and cocaine that cause anatomically identifiable damage to the brain cell.
Acute drug intoxication or inflammation from an acute infection, can also lead to over-firing of the brain cells, which will lead to the confusion and instability that is characteristic in these disorders but, unlike chronic disorders, there may be no obvious lesion in the brain cell that can be held accountable for the symptoms.
Dr Oliver Verbe Birnso,MD
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