Not all head injuries cause a brain injury and not all brain injuries cause brain damage. A brain injury that’s caused by a bump or blow to your head is sometimes referred to as traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injuries are one of the most common causes of disability or death.
Your brain can be damaged even though it is protected by a thick skull bone, is suspended in fluid and is blocked off from the rest of your bloodstream by the blood-brain barrier. Not only is your brain able to be damaged by some sort of outside force, your brain can also be damaged from the inside by disease or imbalance causing a disrupt to healthy function. It’s delicate nature makes it highly susceptible to numerous forms of injury, damage or disease.
Encephalopathy means brain disease, damage or malfunction. And the causes of encephalopathy are numerous.
One cause for brain injury is some type of insult, either externally or internally. These insults can originate physically or be the result of blood flow, temperature or pressure changes, for example:
- stroke
- childbirth
- blast injury
- concussion
- brain tumors
- near drowning
- diving accident
- lack of blood flow
- brain hemorrhage
- cerebral aneurysm
- motor vehicle accident
- shaken baby syndrome
- decompression sickness
- hyperthermia ~ heat stroke
- increased pressure in the skull
Your brain can malfunction because it’s been chemically deprived or overwhelmed, for instance by:
- anoxia
- alcoholism
- neurotoxins
- dehydration
- malnutrition
- hyponatremia
- chemotherapy
- infant jaundice
- electrolyte imbalance
- vitamin B12 deficiency
- fetal alcohol syndrome
- eating too much protein
- poisoning ~ alcohol, lead
- prolonged hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia
- Wernicke’s encephalopathy ~ thiamine deficiency
- illicit drug use, drug overdose ~ cocaine, amphetamines, heroin
- toxic chemicals ~ solvents, drugs, radiation, paints, industrial chemicals
A bacteria, virus or parasite can invade your brain and cause damage from infections like these:
- HIV
- syphilis
- measles
- meningitis
- toxoplasmosis
- Gaucher disease
- cerebral malaria
- whooping cough
- infant cytomegalic virus
- Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease
Brain damage can also be a consequence of disease or another health condition, such as:
- epilepsy
- hepatitis
- liver failure
- kidney failure
- cardiac arrest
- Lyme disease
- Refsum disease
- Wilson’s Disease
- Reye’s syndrome
- multiple sclerosis
- Huntington disease
- metabolic disorders
- ventricular fibrillation
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Parkinson’s disease
- lipid storage disease
- neurological disorders
- osteogenesis imperfecta
- blood disorders ~ hemophilia
Although encephalopathy has many causes, altered mental state is one symptom they all have in common.
Altered mental state symptom manifests whether your brain damage is caused by injury, insult, chemical unbalance, invasion or disease. This encephalopathy symptom might be noticed via inattentiveness, poor judgment or lack of coordination. Your brain altered symptom can be subtle or profound and develop very slowly or quickly.
Other encephalopathy symptoms depend largely on the type and severity of damage. However, some of the more prevalent brain damage symptoms are:
- coma
- tremors
- lethargy
- seizures
- amnesia
- paralysis
- dementia
- nystagmus
- muscle atrophy
- muscle weakness
- chronic headaches
- myoclonus, muscle twitching
- difficulty swallowing, speaking
- decreased level of consciousness
- sensation, hearing, vision, taste, smell changes
Treating your underlying cause of brain damage can improve symptoms. However, encephalopathy caused by permanent structural injury will likely be irreversible.
