Professor Mao says depression in traumatic brain injury patients should be taken seriously

  Traumatic brain injury is a major trauma that seriously endangers human health. Even if the patient receives timely and effective treatment to save his or her life, it is often accompanied by various functional disorders, causing various complications and sequelae that reduce the patient’s ability to take care of himself or herself and social adaptation, seriously endangering the patient’s physical and mental health and greatly reducing the patient’s quality of life. This not only brings pain to the patient himself, but also brings mental and economic pressure to the whole family.  With the progress of treatment and rehabilitation, patients gradually realize that the trauma they have suffered will cause long-term or even lifelong impairment, such as hemiplegia, which is impossible to return to the state before the disease, or even spend their whole life in a wheelchair, and some patients also have defecation, urination control, speech or hearing impairment, etc., resulting in the inability to take care of themselves, and the long course of the disease, slow recovery and unremarkable rehabilitation effect. These physical changes can lead to depression, a sense of hopelessness, sadness and anxiety. Especially for young patients, their main concern is the change in their appearance and daily living ability caused by traumatic brain injury and the prognosis of the outcome, which will affect their daily life, study, employment, work, marriage and children in the future. For middle-aged patients role maladjustment is a common cause of depression.  They are usually the backbone of the family, and during hospitalization, they often worry about whether their condition will affect their work, whether their children and parents will be well taken care of, and whether they will have a secure life in the future. The cost of treatment and rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury is expensive, and some patients who do not have a fixed income or have a heavy family burden cannot afford the basic medical expenses and are worried about increasing the burden on their families, especially those who are the main responsible parties in traffic accidents. This can cause great damage to the patient’s spirit and easily lead to depression and other negative emotions.