Ebook: Traumatic Brain Injury and Neuropsychological Impairment: Sensorimotor, Cognitive, Emotional, and Adaptive Problems of Children and Adults

The brain is a delicate, complex, and easily disrupted organ. Unfortunately, the frequency of brain injury and the impairing effects of even seemingly minor injury is generally unknown to the public, the media, and, surprisingly, even many health professionals. It is hoped that this book will make a contribution to the welfare of brain-damaged people through a comprehensive and detailed state­ ment concerning their impairment and how to recognize it. Increased under­ standing of impairment, and the significant symptoms that reveal it, will enhance treatment planning, and aid in avoiding the error of assuming that symptoms are emotional, malingering, or exaggerations. In writing this book I have drawn on my experience in assessing individuals of all ages who have undergone traumatic brain injury, in order to alert the public, their families, concerned professionals, teaching physicians, psychologists, and attorneys to the clinical and technical issues that will aid in understanding and serving these people. Experience as a psychotherapist and career counselor offered a clinical perspective from which to document the conclusion that trau­ matic brain damage frequently impairs adaptive capacity of children and adults after even relatively "minor" injury.

---

Traumatic Brain Injury and Neuropsychological Impairment is a comprehensive clinical and research source concerning the diagnosis, consequences and treatment of trauma injury. Dr. Parker's many years of experience as a psychological examiner, with current medical and neuropsychological references, make this clear, concise text valuable for teachers and students of neuropsychology, clinical psychology, psychiatry and neurology; general practitioners and other physicians; rehabilitation professionals; nurses; public health officials and families of victims. Exploding the myth of so-called "minor head injury", it describes the gross impairment caused by vehicular accidents, assaults, falls, falling objects, neurotoxins, child abuse, etc. Diagnosis is approached as deviations from pre-injury baseline, as well as neuropsychological and neurological symptoms. Proper emphasis is given to the integrated functioning of the brain, including the importance of subcortical injury for impairment. Contents include: epidemiology; case histories with patients' experience of impairment and altered identity; neuroanatomy and neuropsychological principles (with diagrams); primary and secondary brain pathology; a taxonomy of dysfunctions (including emotional, adaptive, post traumatic stress, sense of identity); children's brain damage; "Expressive Defects" (patients' inability to describe their impairment); neurotoxins; the eclectic neuropsychological examination; psychotherapy; pharmacological treatment (Arthur Greenspan, MD); Rorschach applications; intake interviews (children and adults) and comprehensive symptom checklist.