The University of Adelaide CENTRE FOR AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY RESEARCH

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TitleBrain Injury: The structural basis of functional disability
AuthorsSimpson DA
Year1989
TypeConference Paper
AbstractTraumatic brain injury is today perhaps the most important and most challenging issue in the whole field of neuroscience. It is important, in the f i r s t instance, because it concerns an enormous number of young people in the most productive time of their lives. Every year, in South Australia (population 1.3 million) alone, some 6,000 people are admitted to hospital with head injuries [Woodward, Dorsch & Simpson, 19841. Most of them make good recoveries, but it has been estimated that at least 85 of them have gross permanent disabilities from brain damage, and many others (the number is uncertain, but not small), are left with less serious disabilities that may nevertheless change their lives. In the second instance, traumatic brain injury is important, and challenging, because it is so largely mysterious: if we understood why the injured brain does or does not recover, it is likely that we would understand not only the disabilities resulting from traumatic brain injury, but also many other causes of brain failure, and not least the dementias of old age, such as Alzheimer's disease. But we are still a very long way from that knowledge.
Book DetailsRecovery from brain injury - expectations, needs and processes, R.D. Harris, R.J. Burns, R.J. Rees (eds)
PublisherSouth Australian College of Advanced Education
Publisher CityAdelaide
ISBN0908107072
Conference NameRecovery from brain injury - expectations, needs and processes
Conference LocationAdelaide, Australia
Conference Date2-7 September 1989
Page Range5-15
Page Count11
Notesavailable from CASR library on request

Reference
Simpson DA (1989). Brain Injury: The structural basis of functional disability. Recovery from brain injury - expectations, needs and processes, (pp. 5-15). Adelaide: South Australian College of Advanced Education.