Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder following traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Attention comprises an important component of the executive functions. It can be described as the preferential processing of certain sensory or imagined information at the expense of other stimuli. Attention impairment constitutes a common residual deficit following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in adults and in children. After TBI patients often report difficulties in being able to pay attention to more than one thing at a time, making mistakes because of not paying attention properly, missing important details and having difficulties in concentrating. In cognitive terms, these complaints represent deficits in several aspects of attention.
Attention may be impaired following traumatic brain injury either due to the primary post TBI neuropathology and/or due to secondary factors such as fatigue, sleep disturbance, depressed mood and pain.
Both, pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches are used to alleviate impairments of attention and other aspects of executive and emotional dysfunction after TBI.
In this talk we will discuss the risk and features of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder following traumatic brain injury (TBI), and overview the possible treatments available.