Recovery Flashcards
(13 cards)
4 Misconceptions about recovery from brain injury
Recovery primarily depends on person’s attitude/effort
Full recovery is always possible
All effects of brain dysfunction are externally visible
People with impairments have good insight to their condition
Intellectual awareness
“I should not snowboard yet”
People are aware of their shortcomings, leading to self-awareness of current deficits
Emergent Awareness
“I thought I would do better. My snowboarding skills are still a bit off but next time I’ll be fine”
People thinking they will recover soon, just a bit of hindrance by injury
Self-monitoring and error detection during task performance
Anticipatory awareness
“My brain injury might not be fully healed but I can probably snowboard fine”
People in denial of their own injuries
Predicting how current deficits may impact future performance and expectations accordingly
Anosognosia
Inability to recognize one’s own impairment
Can be result of any causes to brain injury
Consequences of anosognosia
- Low engagement with rehab
- Medication non-compliance
- Poorer use of compensatory strategies
- Stress and isolation for both affected person and care partners
- Need for more supervised or structured living arrangements
- predicts transition from mild cofnitive impairment to alzheimer’s disease
Difference between anosognosia and denial?
Denial is avoid or rejecting information that is stressful/painful
When someone with Anosognosia is confronted with evidence:
there may be a response of surprise or confabulation
Age factor
Across age, brains change:
-Receptor expression
-level of synaptic pruning
-level of neuron outgrowth
-bloodflow
-metabolic patterns
-myelination
Lesion size factors
Larger lesions = greater functional impairments
Bilateral lesions = less recovery than unilateral
Chronic vs acute injury factors
Massive slow-growing tumours = less impairment
Sudden stroke with associated damage of comparable size = functionally devastating
Environmental factors
Enriched environments typically better for recovery.
higher activity levels (sustained after discharge), shorter length of stay at hospital, modified rankin scale
Secondary effects factors
Edema: swelling after stroke or brain injury
Blood flow: local changes following injury
Diashisis: sudden change in function in portion of the brain connected to a distant, damaged area. Two areas of the brain work at the same time, so when one is injured the other will be shocked
Differentiate compensation from plasticity
Compensation is learning to do an old thing in a new way using alternative pathways
Plasticity is rewiring of the brain’s connections, which is its inherent ability.
