Symptomatology Literature for Fatigue and Vertigo

The nature and extent of symptoms after brain injury are getting more and more thorough treatment throughout peer reviewed literature. The interest that has occurred in Sport Concussion, particularly because of the NFL’s change in perspective, has been one part of that. The second part of that has been the money that has been budgeted from the Federal Government to research military head injury. Thus, the reliance of a few seminal sources when this page was created more than a decade ago, is now no longer the case.

With respect to a good overview of the peer reviewed literature on Sport Concussion, the work of Mickey Collins group with the Impact Test is at the forefront.  A comprehensive list of their research can be found here: http://impacttest.com/publications/page/reliability

With respect to military head injury/blast injury, one place to start is here: http://cdmrp.army.mil/phtbi/default.shtml

See also the research and grants discussed on blast injury here: https://blastinjuryresearch.amedd.army.mil/index.cfm?f=application.pco_sos_2011_tinnitus

From  a historic standpoint, the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicines’s definition of Mild Brain Injury, discussed at http://www.tbilaw.com/tbilibrary.loc.php is probably still the most significant.  Of the contributions my writing has made in the field of MTBI, my discussion of fatigue and vestibular disorders are probably the most important.

A. Fatigue After Brain Injury.

Fatigue is perhaps the second biggest common denominator in terms of brain injury symptomotology, following only headache.  But even in those cases where headaches lessened, fatigue continues to persist.  Lezak’s Neuropsychological Assessment, has always been a leading academic source for better understanding of that issue. The best treatment was in the 5th edition, at page 183.

Wrightson and Gronwall,  Mild Head Injury, Chapter 5 also give a thorough treatment of the insiduous nature of brain injury fatigue.

To understand my thoughts on fatigue, is is best to start with the overview of MTBI symptoms at my page http://subtlebraininjury.com/symptomatology.php  The specific treatment of fatigue begins at http://subtlebraininjury.com/fatigue.php

B. Disorders of the Vestibular System After TBI

Balon, Malmagyi, Disorders of the Vestibular System, 1996.

One of the most underdiagnosed problems following brain injury are those which effect the vestibular system, consisting of inner ear, cranial nerves and brain stem. While there are better resources on line to understand trauma’s effect on the vestibular system, this text does a comprehensive job of detailing the normal and pathological issues involved.

 Our page on vestibular disorders is at http://vestibulardisorder.com

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