It’s known that a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, can cause serious mental illness with symptoms similar to bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Whether or not a TBI can actually cause those specific diseases is still unclear. Researchers have determined a link between TBI and an increased likelihood of schizophrenia developing but have not gone so far as to say that the brain injury actually is the cause. An auto accident attorney in Centralia, WA helps clients who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia after a brain injury or represents their families if the person has become too disabled to understand the legal process.
Schizophrenia manifests in many ways. Some people become entirely withdrawn and apathetic. Others experience disturbing auditory hallucinations that become so distracting they cannot function well. Schizophrenic patients may talk in nonsensical rhymes and their conversation patterns can be incomprehensible.
Researchers theorize that suffering a brain injury may trigger the onset of this particular mental illness in people who had a greater risk of it. For instance, a family history of this disease is a risk factor. Another theory is that someone who was just starting to have symptoms may have been more susceptible to experiencing a TBI. For example, this person may have become afraid to wear seat belts, but not wearing safety belts would be a significant risk for a head injury during a car accident.
One research study evaluated people with a family history of the disease, dividing the group into those who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and those who had not developed the condition. The researchers found that those diagnosed with the illness were nearly three times more likely to have suffered a head injury than those who did not have the disorder. This is strong evidence that an auto accident attorney in Centralia, WA can use to convince an insurer to provide financial compensation when a driver causes an accident that results in a TBI to another person.
At the website of a firm such as Putnam-Lieb-Potvin, attorneys at law, someone who has been injured in a car accident may schedule an appointment for a free consultation. If the injured person is unable to do so, a family member can have the consultation instead.
