TBI & Anosognosia Flashcards
What are the main causes of TBI?
- Violence
- Transportation accidents
- Construction
- Sports
- Firearms and blast injuries from explosions (eg. war zones)
- Kids - falls and child abuse
What is the difference between anosognosia and denial?
- Anosognosia: genuine lack of awareness of one’s deficits.
- Denial: refusal (despite knowledge) to admit deficits.
Why does TBI lead to anosognosia and not denial?
Because of the flat affect.
Flat affect
Patient does not experience distress despite deficits.
Why is repeated TBI in sports a common phenomenon?
Eg. John bangs his head while skateboarding -> TBI. After a few months of rehab, John becomes convinced that he is okay (anosognosia) and goes back to skateboarding -> second TBI. After a few months of rehab, John becomes convinced again that he is okay (anosognosia) and goes back to skateboarding -> third TBI. And so forth.
Why is it important to increase self-awareness after TBI?
Patients who have low self-awareness poorly comply with participation in treatment & have longer lengths of stay in rehab than individuals without impaired self-awareness.
What are 2 key behaviours emitted by TBI patients that show disinhibition?
- Excessive eating
- Obsession with sex
Why is the use of self-reports to assess TBI a bad idea?
Use of self-report instruments to assess impaired self-awareness is discouraged because self-reporting presupposes self-awareness! Better methods would include looking at actual performance on tasks vs patient’s view of self-performance. A convergence (or lack thereof) between self-ratings (eg. of personality) and others’ ratings.
Self-awareness
Capacity to perceive self in relatively objective terms while maintaining sense of subjectivity.
What 3 types of deficits in self-awareness exist after TBI?
- “Intellectual awareness” (knowing you have problem)
- Emergent awareness (knowing you have problem when it occurs)
- Anticipatory awareness (knowing in advance you have problem that will affect future functioning)
