Traumatic brain injury haunts children for years with variety of functional problems: T...(juries in the areas of mental processing...),Health

Some children seemed at first to be doing all right on cognitive tests and in the classroom, but then developed significant behavioral problems. Parents and doctors should watch children who've had traumatic brain injury closely because something may come up later perhaps, the authors suggested, as a secondary reaction to the disruption caused by the injury, or because the family has not functioned very well, especially in response to the injury.

Generally, one year after injury, nearly 60 percent of the severe TBI group had problems in at least one area, compared with 25 percent of the controls. Four years after injury, 40 percent of children suffering severe TBI and 20 percent of the controls showed deficits. At both intervals, the share of brain-injured children with cognitive problems was at least twice that of the control group members with problems.

Even so, the researchers were intrigued that many children with moderate to severe TBI showed no significant weaknesses from six months to four years after the injury, in one or more of the areas measured.

Perhaps, they speculated, that was because in previous long-term studies, group averages may have hidden the fact that some individual children can do well over time. This team, by tracking individuals, revealed that some children are more mentally resilient. If researchers can learn why, they may be able to help more children to recover more fully from this type of injury.

"It's probably a complex interplay of child, family and broader environmental/cultural factors. The care and treatment children receive may make a difference, such as whether they have access to rehabilitation and special-education services," said co-author Keith Yeates, PhD, who also mentioned genetic differences
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