A Frontal Lobe Injury Can Alter An Accident Victim’s Personality

A broken leg heals. A back injury can be treated with surgery or medication. Even the most serious and extreme injuries, like paralysis, leave you the same person with the same hopes and the same memories. Tragically, some serious brain injuries don’t heal, can’t be fixed, and could leave you with a different personality than before your accident.

Over the years, doctors and scientists have confirmed that some serious head injuries – usually to the frontal lobe section of the brain – can alter how a person feels as well as how they act. Perhaps even more devastating than the cognition problems, speech problems, and memory problems that are common with traumatic brain injuries, changes in behavior and personality after a head injury can leave both the victim and their family wondering if they can ever return to normal and if they have lost their loved one, in a way, forever.

While it can sometimes be difficult to put a finger on exactly what has changed, there are some common changes and symptoms that are associated with these personality and behavior changes:

• Increased depression and anxiety.
• Temper issues, rage, and angry outbursts.
• Extreme mood swings and irritability.
• Rash decision-making.
• An increase in risk-taking.
• An inability to gauge social situations.
• An inability to refrain from swearing or acting inappropriately.
• Lapses in judgment.
• Trouble concentrating.
• Changes in sociability.
• Changes in past behavior.

While some of these changes could be linked to the trauma of the accident and the difficulty of recovery, some personality changes are the direct result of brain damage in the frontal lobe. Although some of these changes could improve throughout recovery, some can be permanent. Throughout history, there have been hundreds of examples of brain injury victims who woke up after their accident a significantly altered person.

It is extremely difficult for brain injury victims to grapple and accept a personality change in the wake of a brain injury – and it can be just as difficult to compensate for such a tragic and extreme injury. If you or a loved one have suffered a personality or behavioral change following a head injury, and if that head injury was due to the recklessness or neglect of another party, speak with a Texas personal injury attorney today.