Because of the tremendous advances in medical technology and emergency acute care, the numbers of persons who survive a brain injury continues to increase. This produces a large, and growing new disability group. People with brain injuries are becoming the single largest disability group in our nation.
Brain injury is a life-long disability .
It does not go away with time and there is no cure. In this way, brain injury is similar to mental illness and mental retardation. However, a person with a brain injury differs from these other populations in significant ways and treatment should always remain separate. Grouping people with brain injuries with these other two groups is detrimental to the treatment and rehabilitation of people with brain injuries. Traditional psychiatric behavior modification drugs will often have an adverse effect on a person with a brain injury.