March is Brain Injury Awareness Month

March is National Brain Injury Awareness Month. Brain injuries can range from concussions to comas and are often referred to as traumatic brain injuries (tbi) or mild traumatic brain injuries (mtbi). Regardless of these names, any injury to the head is a serious matter.

In discussing brain injuries, these statistics from braintrauma.org help to demonstrate the prevalence of these types of injuries:

· Brain injuries are most often caused by car accidents, sports injuries, and falls.

· Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of disability and death in adults and children from ages 1 to 44.

· Moderate & severe head injury is associated with a 2.3 and 4.5 times increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

· Every year, approximately 52,000 deaths occur from traumatic brain injury.

· 30 percent of soldiers admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical Center have been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injuries can be either mild, moderate or severe, but all are serious. Brain injuries can change the way people interact with others, function on a daily basis, and live their lives. People suffering traumatic brain injuries often find that they are always fatigued, suffer from severe headaches, are anxious, annoyed and can be depressed. Making sure that you receive the right treatment for a head injury, as soon as possible after the injury, is the best way to recover from an injury.