Elderly people don’t face the risk of TBI from wars or sports like young people. Their major risk factor for TBI is falls. One recent study in Finland by Niina Korhonen, B.M. stated that TBI from falls is a leading cause of death and disability in the elderly.
Older persons tend to recovery more slowly and less completely from TBI than middle-aged or young people. According to a special issue of the journal NeuroRehabilitation published on May 6, 2013 TBI in the elderly poses special diagnostic, management and treatment challenges. “As our understanding of TBI increases, it is becoming clear that its impact is not uniform across the lifespan and that the response of a young brain to a TBI is different from that of an old brain,” writes Guest Editor Wayne A. Gordon, PhD, ABPP, Vice Chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY. If you are a family member of an older person who sustained a TBI it is important to be aware of this, and to make contact with a gerontologist or a rehab physician like Dr. Gordon who is familiar with TBI in the elderly.
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