Dr. Wayne Gordon, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, believes that "Unidentified brain injury is an unrecognized major source of social and vocational failures."
Brain injuries are a very common result of automobile crashes, participation in sports, bike accidents, child abuse and falls. The problem is that parents do not associate their child's current problems with an injury that may have occurred several years before.
The Mount Sinai team looked at 400 children enrolled in programs for learning disabilities and found that 50% had suffered head injuries. Five years ago, they studied 845 patients in drug and alcohol centers and found that 54% had suffered hard blows to their heads. They evaluated 100 homeless people and found that of the 70% were in the bottom 10th percentile for memory and language, 82% had suffered head blows, usually from parental abuse.
The Mount Sinai team is also using the results of a study done in 2000, when researchers went door-to-door in Connecticut, interviewing 5000 people. About 7% of them had suffered head injuries involving unconsciousness or a period of confusion. This group had twice the rate of depression and alcohol and drug abuse.
Labels: alcohol_abuse, drug_abuse, injuries
Posted By: Aspen Education Group