The Archives of Physical Medicine Rehabilitation published its Position Statement: Definition of Traumatic Brain Injury in November 2010. This new definition will hopefully serve advocates of those clients and patients who sustain traumatic brain injury.
This adds to the medical literature that supports the reality that brain injury need not involve loss of conciousness but rather an alteration of conciousness. And, that mild brain injury can be due to variety of mechanisms.
Of particular interest to me is the language "alteration in brain function" which leaves room for the brain injuries where a person is not knocked out. How many times do we see opponents of traumatic brain injury relying on loss of concious as a necessary element. The world famous case of Phineas Gage, and the railroad tie through his brain, did not involve loss of conciousness.
Imaging technology has improved our understanding and diagnostic clarification of the impact of mild traumatic brain injury. We better understand the more subtle neurocognitive and neuroaffective deficits that may result from traumatic brain injury in general.
In April 2009, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense issued a Clinical Practice Guideline for management of concussion/mild traumatic brain injury. In civilian, military, and veteran populations, there is increased recognition of the interrelationship between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and some psychological health (PH) disorders and the need to better understand the relationships by integrating research for these topics.
Simply stated, the definition is"
TBI is defined as an alteration in brain function, or other evidence of brain pathology, caused by an external force.
