How Long Might Recoveries Continue After Very Severe Brain Injury?

Abstract

Barbara A Wilson

While most people who sustain a severe brain injury will not return to their premorbid state, a majority will show improvement over time. To what extent can we call such improvements ‘recovery’? Jennet and Bond interpreted recovery as a return to normal life, perhaps with minor neurological or psychological deficits [1]. This may happen for some survivors of brain injury but is unlikely to occur for those with very severe damage. The majority of patients will fit Marshall’s definition that recovery means the ‘diminution of impairments in behavioural or physiological functions over time’ [2].

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