10.10 Take home messages

  • Mental illness is when a person:

    • has particular symptoms or behaviour
    • that represents certain types of illnesses that psychiatrists or psychologists diagnose.
  • Brain injury can increase the risk of a person having a mental health problem but not every person who has a brain injury will get a mental health problem.

  • The more severe a person's brain injury the greater the risk they have of getting a mental health problem.

  • If the person has a family history of mental health problems, if the person has had a mental health problem before their brain injury, or abused drugs or alcohol, they are at a greater risk of getting a mental illness .

  • Identifying mental health problems after a traumatic brain injury is important because it

    • Improves the person's ability to recover
      • Reduces health risks
      • Helps reduce stress and
      • May reduce legal risks.
  • Diagnosis of mental illness for a person with traumatic brain injury can be a challenge.

  • The four main types of mental health problems after a traumatic brain injury are
    • Depression
    • Psychosis
    • Anxiety
    • Personality change.
  • Each of these types of mental health problems has different symptoms, but the symptoms can overlap.

  • Each of them requires specific treatments. For example, in managing depression:
    • caused by a biochemical imbalance or structural changes in the brainwe often need to use medication. But the combination of counselling and medication is going to work much better than medication alone.
    • which is a reactive depression counselling or a treatment called cognitive behaviour therapy helps most people to get better.
  • Treatment is usually straightforward - most of the mental health problems people get after a brain injury can respond to treatment. Most of the treatments are reasonably well accepted and do not have too many side effects.

  • If you are a carer and you get a mental health problem, go and get some help for it because it will make it much easier for you to be a carer and to take care of the person in your family that has had a brain injury.

  • Even though treatment is usually straightforward there are many treatment challenges for example:
    • Lack of awareness of insight of the person with the traumatic brain injury
    • Lack of local clinicians with the relevant expertise to diagnose the problem
    • The social stigma associated with mental illness
    • Mental health services mistaking the symptoms of a mental health problem for symptoms of traumatic brain injury .
  • It is important to identify a source of further information, for example in New South Wales, Australia - the New South Wales Brain Injury Association.

Next