Wall Street Journal Discovers TBI

 Posted on January 30, 2008 in Uncategorized

Steve Gustitis at the Defense Perspective reminds us that "hidden head trauma may be linked to behavioral problems in society", which is of great import to the criminal-defense lawyer.

Steve's post was inspired by an email from John Niland of the Texas Defender Service, who sent the Texas capital defense bar a link to a Wall Street Journal front-page article:

That severe head injuries can lead to cognitive and behavioral problems is widely accepted. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 5.3 million Americans suffer from mental or physical disability that is due to brain injury.What's new is the contention of some researchers that there are many other cases where a severe past blow to the head, resulting in unconsciousness or confusion, is the unrecognized source of such problems. "Unidentified traumatic brain injury is an unrecognized major source of social and vocational failure," says Wayne A. Gordon, director of the Brain Injury Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, where much of the research is being done.Research by his team has consistently found high rates of "hidden" head trauma when screening various populations in New York schools, addiction programs and the general population. The CDC acknowledges its 5.3 million estimate is an undercount based on hospital admissions; it doesn't include people who sought no treatment for a severe blow to the head or who were sent home from a doctor's office or emergency room with little treatment.

None of this qualifies as news here at Defending People, nor to Steve or John. If you're new to these here parts, here're my previous posts on the topic of traumatic brain injury, or TBI.

And here's an article about LaFonda Jones, who is a lawyer protecting the rights of soldiers suffering from PTSD and TBI.