Psychiatric Aspects of Head Injury

Abstract

In the past head injuries have been of comparatively little concern to the psychiatrist. As judged from statistics of admission to mental hospitals they are a small problem. Mapother (1937), for example, who took a very broad view of the causal connection found in L.C.C. mental hospitials—3 per thousand in observation wards, 4 per thousand in psychiatric O.P. depts. in general hospitals, 7 per thousand of the admissions attributable to head injuries. The increasing interest that psychiatrists take in head injuries at present is mainly due to the increasing amount of extramural work that they are being called on to do. In general hospital and outpatient practice they are bound to encounter a considerable number of problems connected with head injuries, both in the acute and in the later stages. The psychiatrists and neuro-psychiatrists in the Services have probably had this experience first, but when adequate provision of psychiatric service becomes available in the general hospitals, many cases will come into the orbit of psychiatrists which hitherto have been “disposed of” without much regard for their mental aspect.