Traumatic Brain Injury – Smart Phone

Transcript

For someone who has sustained a traumatic brain injury or maybe suffering from associated post-traumatic stress disorder, there is one tool that you should never forget. And that’s this, that is your smartphone. And the reason why I bring this up is because so many of the people who suffer from these concussions are young people who are very familiar with using a smart technology. And for those of us who are a little older, we need to get very savvy at it because actually it can work as your accessory brain until your own brain comes back. It can remind you when to wake up or when to go to the store, you can put all of the lists of what you need at the grocery store or drug store on your smartphone. It can help you get home. It can even help you find your keys or your car. And whereas all of these sound like very simple day to day activities, to someone who has had a concussion, they’re not so simple. So having a smartphone and using it wisely actually helps decrease frustration, therefore decreases anxiety and depression. And so don’t go anywhere without your smartphone. If you’ve had a traumatic brain injury, or if you’re suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
And then there are other medications that we utilize if someone’s brain is kind of out of control, like it’s kind of spinning way out of control and being unable to even process any information because the information seems to be filtering by so quickly. So those are the two major types of medications that are utilized again, to be very well titrated, to be very small amounts and to be rechecked to every two weeks. Lastly, there is kind of the catch all group of the antidepressants for individuals that are having difficulty sleeping. And that’s primarily the different classes of medications we use for an individual who has sustained a traumatic brain injury.”