The Connection between Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury in Paediatric and Young Patients, Therapeutic Guidelines and New Therapeutic Approaches

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is considered, worldwide, to be the leading cause of disability and mortality between the ages 1 and 45. In USA only, a report of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, mentioned that from 2006 to 2014, the number of TBI-related emergency unit visits, hospitalizations and deaths increased by 53%. In 2014, for example, an average of 155 people in the US died each day from injuries that included a traumatic brain injury, no matter the severity. Significant neurologic complications occurred after a traumatic brain injury including seizures, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and cranial nerve injuries. People may suffer from various psychiatric complications such as depression, PTSD, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and other cognitive and behavioural disorders. Considering that, TBI may be regarded as one of the significant public health burdens. This present study addresses the emergence of OCD and OCD symptoms after TBI and the necessity of having an on target therapeutic intervention plus the assessment of new therapeutic approaches, with the purpose to support the practitioners during the rehabilitation program of TBI patients suffering from OCD, focusing on the counselling and psycho-therapy programs like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy, NLP—yet, not considered a therapy and Hypnotherapy Post-TBI emergent psychopathology, especially obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is influenced by underlying subclinical diathesis, brain injury lesions sites, environmental stressors and the rehabilitation process including the attention paid to the depression period that follows the TBI, where the intrusive thoughts, that are not therapeutically approached, may turn later on into obsessive thoughts that trigger compulsive behaviours. Along with that, the management of family, friends, environmental stressors and the enhanced clinical identification of symptoms after traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be used in the rehabilitation process to improve prognosis and control the psychiatric complications.