Rehabilitating severely head-injured adolescents: three case reports

The case reports of 3 severely head-injured adolescents, who developed psychiatric sequelae after the trauma, are presented. All 3 cases displayed various socially disinhibited behaviours. Individually tailored treatment programmes helped these young people manage their maturational tasks of adolescence. Several issues, central to this rehabilitative work, are discussed, including the personal significance of the adolescent's injury, identity issues and defence mechanisms; a family perspective on coping with the injured adolescent and the components of a therapeutic package.