The Traumatized Brain A Family Guide to Understanding Mood, Memory, and Behavior after Brain Injury

Useful information and real hope for patients and families whose lives have been altered by traumatic brain injury.

A traumatic brain injury is a life-changing event, affecting an individual’s lifestyle, ability to work, relationships―even personality. Whatever caused it―car crash, work accident, sports injury, domestic violence, combat―a severe blow to the head results in acute and, often, lasting symptoms. People with brain injury benefit from understanding, patience, and assistance in recovering their bearings and functioning to their full abilities.

In The Traumatized Brain, neuropsychiatrists Drs. Vani Rao and Sandeep Vaishnavi―experts in helping people heal after head trauma―explain how traumatic brain injury, whether mild, moderate, or severe, affects the brain. They advise readers on how emotional symptoms such as depression, anxiety, mania, and apathy can be treated; how behavioral symptoms such as psychosis, aggression, impulsivity, and sleep disturbances can be addressed; and how cognitive functions like attention, memory, executive functioning, and language can be improved. They also discuss headaches, seizures, vision problems, and other neurological symptoms of traumatic brain injury.

By stressing that symptoms are real and are directly related to the trauma, Rao and Vaishnavi hope to restore dignity to people with traumatic brain injury and encourage them to ask for help. Each chapter incorporates case studies and suggestions for appropriate medications, counseling, and other treatments and ends with targeted tips for coping. The book also includes a useful glossary, a list of resources, and suggestions for further reading.

Vani Rao, MBBS, MD (SEVERN, MD), is a part-time associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She also has a private practice in Washington, DC.

Sandeep Vaishnavi, MD, PhD (CARY, NC),is a faculty member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and an adjunct associate in the Department of Medicine at Duke University. He is also a neuropsychiatrist and the chief medical officer designate at ARC Health.

Peter V. Rabins, MD, MPH, is professor emeritus in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The author of Is It Alzheimer's? 101 Answers to Your Most Pressing Questions about Memory Loss and Dementia and coauthor of The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease and Other Dementias, he was the founding director of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry and the first holder of the Richman Family Professorship for Alzheimer's and Related Diseases.