Neuropsycho-social rehabilitation of head injury

The present article summarizes 10 years of experience in head injury rehabilitation at Loewenstein Rehabilitation Center. The goal of rehabilitation in head injured patients consists of returning to work and adaptation to: interpersonal consequences of disability; new affective needs; and capacity to attend to financial, legal and bureaucratic matters. The achievement of these goals goes far beyond neurological boundaries in the ordinary narrow sense and needs a neuropsycho-social approach. Neuropsycho-social rehabilitation in head injury has multidimensional clinical aspects. Two problems should be emphasised: a) gross neurological disability (mono, hemi, para and triplegia) found in the presence of good cognitive function (patients easy to rehabilitate) and b) minor neurological disability found in the presence of gross cognitive impairment (patients not easy to rehabilitate). Posttraumatic epilepsy needs general criteria for its management. It is preferable to wait for the first seizure in order to start anticonvulsant treatment, except for 3 at risk conditions: 1) diffuse bilateral injury 2) prolonged coma, and 3) intracerebral hematoma. The first 3 years is the maximum at risk period. The traumatic syndrome consisting of impaired insight and behaviour disturbances is underdiagnosed owing to the absence of neurological signs. The sleep disturbances accompanying head injury are usually underestimated.