Brain injury: recovery and rehabilitation

This paper discusses contributing factors relating to recovery and rehabilitation among patients who have sustained nonprogressive brain injury. Following a brief description of conditions observed in people with brain damage and their incidence and prevalence, the paper then focuses on survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI), concentrating particularly on recovery and rehabilitation within this group. As recovery means different things to different people, the term is used here to mean partial recovery of function together with substitution of function.1 Consideration is given to factors influencing recovery from TBI, particularly age, gender, and cognitive reserve. Mechanisms of recovery are also examined, particularly regeneration, diaschisis, and plasticity. Attention is then focused on rehabilitation, a process whereby survivors of brain injury are helped to attain their optimum level of functioning and return to their own most appropriate environments. Cognitive rehabilitation is typically aimed at helping people compensate for their difficulties. The need to treat cognitive, emotional, and psychosocial consequences of brain injury is recognized, and different approaches to rehabilitation are described together with the main changes seen in the past few years. Finally, evidence for the success of neuropsychological rehabilitation is presented. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.