New research from the University of Warwick reveals that children with even mild head injury may be at risk of long-term complications, including personality changes, emotional, behavioural and learning problems.
The study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry examined more than 500 children aged 5-15 years at head injury over a 6-year period. Parents were asked to register what changes they noticed in their child after the head injury, and what follow-up they had received from clinicians. Even after a mild head injury, one in five children had a change in personality according to their parents.
Parents often described the personality change after the head injury as “like having a different child”. Further, 43 percent of children with mild head injury had behavioural or learning problems that led to them being described as having a "moderate disability".
Overall around 30 percent of parents believed that their child’s personality had changed as a result of the initial damage. Among children with more serious head injuries, about two thirds had moderate disability, and about half experienced a major change in personality after the head injury.
Dr Carol Hawley, from Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick, said: “Many children with mild injury do not receive routine follow-up after discharge home from hospital, yet a significant proportion of them do have some lasting problems which may affect their behaviour and ability to learn. This could put them at a disadvantage at school.”
While all of the children in the study had been treated in a hospital after having a head injury, only 30 percent of parents said that doctors at the hospital had made a follow-up appointment for their child. In fact, 161 of the 252 children with moderate disability did not receive any follow-up care.