Can you recover from a mild traumatic brain injury?

Most patients with mild traumatic brain injury recover completely within a week to three months. If you are over 40, it may take a little longer to return to normal. Symptoms often go away without any special treatment. Most symptoms of concussion resolve on their own, but some can develop into life-threatening conditions.

See factors that can influence the severity of a brain injury and the potential for long-term effects. SD: standard deviation; MtbI, mild traumatic brain injury; SCI% 3D composite socioeconomic index; Loc, LOC, loss of consciousness; PTA, post-traumatic amnesia; RTW, return to work; RTS, back to school; MOI, mechanism of injury; MV, a motor vehicle; B, black; M, male. Findings In this cohort study of 1154 patients with mild traumatic brain injury and 299 patients with orthopedic trauma serving as controls, 53% of participants with mild traumatic brain injury reported deterioration 12 months after the injury versus 38% of those with orthopedic trauma. Time with a speech therapist is extremely valuable during recovery, especially if you have problems with communication, critical thinking, or memory after a brain injury.

My son's mental health continues to deteriorate since his multiple brain injuries through his growth and development. In my case, I would not even have been classified as mild, since I never lost consciousness; however, according to TOTAL symptomatology, my injury was moderate to severe in the final MRI due to the diffuse nature of the brain damage. Given current diagnostic conventions20, mTBI covers a broad spectrum of TBI severity, from concussive lesions with subtle signs of brain dysfunction without evidence of structural injury on computed tomography (CT) scans 21,22 to lesions with intracranial abnormalities shown on computed tomography scans of the head. The data presented in the OTC group shed light on the relevance of the results of peripheral injuries after traumatic injuries.

Mild traumatic brain injury can be caused by several events, such as falls, car accidents, violence, sports-related injuries, or explosive explosions. This prospective longitudinal study reports recovery from mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) in multiple domains in a carefully selected consecutive sample of 74 previously healthy adults. This finding could imply that the poorer functional outcomes in the mTBI CT+ subgroup may partly reflect the consequences of brain injury compared to peripheral trauma. However, recently some medical specialties have begun to try to distinguish them, and concussion refers to an even milder version of a mild traumatic brain injury.

Therefore, while these data shed some light on the potential contribution of the brain and non-brain injuries to outcomes, more work is needed to better understand how these and other factors (e.g. pre-injury risk factors, emotional trauma due to injury) affect recovery from traumatic injuries.