Depression after traumatic brain injury is very common. Research findings suggest that the risk of developing depression following TBI is approximately 2-5 times greater than the general population.

It is very important to combine both rehabilitation treatment and treatment for depression in all cases of traumatic brain injury diagnosed with depression. If the depression is left untreated, successful long-term recovery from a traumatic brain injury is not possible.

Also, there is the danger of suicidal tendencies developing in such depressed patients, if left untreated.

 

Symptoms of Depression in Brain Injury Cases

  • Persistent sadness.
  • Feeling empty and hopeless
  • Frequent episodes of weeping
  • Sudden outburst of anger
  • Constant irritability and frustration
  • Lack of interest in activities that were previously enjoyable
  • Disturbance of sleep
  • Moodiness
  • Guilt
  • Worthlessness
  • Concentration issues
  • Difficulty in applying thought and memory
  • Fatigue and low spiritedness
  • Uncontrollable and frequent thoughts of death or suicide.

 

A Case of Acute Suicidal Depression and Personality Changes After TBI

This is a case discussion of one of my patients with TBI. He was a young teenager, aged 17 and a student of Class XI. He was involved in a car accident and had suffered severe head and brain injury.

To understand how traumatic brain injury changes or jeopardizes the patient’s life, a little flashback is essential. It is necessary to know a bit about this young boy’s personality and behavior before the accident to fully understand how deeply brain injury affects mental health and brings about personality changes.

 

Before the Brain Injury

This boy was very meek, timid and over-sensitive. He was an above-average student and used to score about 80 % marks in examinations. He had a good and legible handwriting and had a great memory, enjoyed video games (was an expert in shooting games), football and watching television.

He was very well-mannered, and his parents had no complaints about him. His teachers also had a good opinion about him, but he had very few friends at school because of his shyness and social inhibition.

 

After Head and Brain Injury

In the accident, he had suffered a skull fracture and consequent penetrative injury to the brain. He was rushed to a multispecialty hospital where he was initially treated for his brain injury for about a month. He was kept in the ICU and on a ventilator here. After about 11 days, tracheostomy was done, a nasogastric tube inserted, catheter inserted, and he continued to be in a comatose state; totally unresponsive to any external stimuli, not opening his eyes and not making any movements.

The neurosurgeons and neurologists had declared that they had done all they could and had nothing hopeful to say about the boy’s condition. They could not say if the boy would ever come out of coma or if there was any chance of him responding to any stimuli.

That was when his parents approached me to know if my treatment could help their child come out of the comatose state.

 

Homeopathy Brings Him Out of Coma-Rapid Recovery

This patient was put on Live positive brain injury treatment protocol on the 35th day of the accident. He started responding very rapidly towards my treatment and opened his eyes within 24 hours, following which there was a rapid improvement in the overall condition.

He went on to start feeding orally, talking and finally walking at first with support of his parents, walker etc. and then independently (all by himself). All these major improvements were completed within 60 days of starting Live positive brain injury treatment protocol.

 

Changes in Personality

There was no major trouble in the initial 60-day period except that he wanted to get rid of his tracheotomy tube and his naso-gastric tube as well, because those tubes did not allow him to sleep comfortably and also because he was very eager to start talking.

He used to gesture to me to help in getting the tubes removed and he used to move his lips and communicate that he could not talk because of the tracheotomy tube.

Once the tubes were removed, he started talking but then he started complaining to me about his voice. He complained that he could not speak loudly and felt weak on using his voice and hence could not talk for long. He also started getting more and more impatient with each coming day.

He could not bear strong lights in the room and he could not look at his mobile screen, TV screen or his laptop. He started losing his temper often and used to shout at his mom if she would delay in fulfilling any of his needs.

The weirdest thing was that he developed a new obsession. He was obsessed about his personal appearance and started spending considerable time and effort in looking handsome. That was when he started complaining about the scars of the tracheotomy and other marks on his face and his gait was still not normal. He also kept requesting me for medicines that would grow his hair rapidly. His parents informed me that this was totally opposite to his original behavior (before accident).

He could walk but he dragged his right leg and he also had issues of exostoses on his elbow and wrist joints which hindered smooth and easy movements and use of his arms and hands.

My treatment for his exostoses were showing excellent results and now he could use a spoon to feed himself and also started using his phone and laptop. And since he was a student and had to resume his studies at the earliest, I and his parents encouraged him to start writing.

 

Depression Sets In

As is obvious, his handwriting turned out to be very poor and was terribly untidy and uneven. In addition to stiffness of his right wrist due to the exostosis, he also had moderately severe trembling of his right hand and leg too. All these factors contributed to his bad handwriting. This is where his depression set in.

To normal people, poor handwriting or dropping a little food when using the spoon to feed yourself may seem to be trivial problems when compared to the battle for life. But to this boy, seemingly trivial matters were becoming huge challenges and he started getting more and more impatient and angry at himself.

Please note that his condition, his exostosis, use of his arms and wrists and his handwriting were improving rapidly, but his impatience and frustration were also growing simultaneously. He wanted instant results. I counselled him at that point and pointed out that he was improving at a miraculous rate and that too within just days, but he said he wanted his old handwriting back and he wanted to get rid of the staggering gait and wanted to look handsome and normal as he was before the accident.

 

Negative Emotions and Suicidal Thoughts

But throughout all this conversation, his mom was sitting beside him. My intuition signaled that there was more to the matter than what was being said openly and asked his mom to wait out. On probing a bit, he finally admitted that he was terribly depressed and had a hard time controlling his negative thoughts.

He hesitantly informed me that he wanted to commit suicide and he was finding it difficult to control his persistent thoughts. He pleaded with me to maintain his privacy and he did not want his parents to know of his condition.

He added that they would be shocked, and it would be unbearable for them to know of his depression and suicidal thoughts. I assured him of complete privacy and that there was nothing to worry and explained that this is a common phenomenon in patients with traumatic brain injuries. I also assured him that homeopathic medicines were potent enough to help him get rid of these negative thoughts.

 

Positivity Returns

The homeopathic antidepressants were advised to be taken for 15 days, and he was scheduled for follow-up after 15 days. But just 5 days after he started the antidepressants, his mom fell ill and visited me for consultation. He had accompanied his mom on that day and he requested to talk to me privately for a moment.

I was expecting him to disclose some other emotional issues that he might have forgotten at the previous visit. But all he said was that “Doctor, I am shocked, surprised and extremely happy. I cannot believe how your medicines worked magic on my mind. I have no negative thoughts at all and I feel so energetic now and have started studying with my old vigor. I have no suicidal thoughts and feel happy and lucky that I survived the accident.”

 

Why is Live Positive Your Best Choice in Treating Brain and Head Injury?

Brain injury is a major incident and brings along several short-term and long-term effects on the body, mind, emptions, personality, personal and social life of the patient and of course affects the family in a major way as well.

We have developed a highly specialized homeopathic treatment protocol for head and brain injury. Our Live Positive brain injury treatment protocol has produced brilliant results in traumatic brain injury, head injury, nerve injury and spine injury cases.

Live Positive brain injury treatment protocol for head, brain and nerve injury is highly successful in treating both short-term and long-term effects of brain injury and has helped people regain their lives back without disability, dependence and decline.

 

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Do not waste precious time in ensuring the best brain injury treatment for your loved one.

Live Positive brain injury treatment protocol, can save your loved one’s life and improve the quality of their life.

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