Adjustment and Coping in Acquired Brain Injury

"People want something to do, somewhere to live and someone to love" (McColl et al. 1998).

Approximately 50% of people who acquire a brain injury will go on to develop chronic anxiety and/or depression (Anson & Ponsford, 2006). Thus there has been a focus on understanding this process in order to help. However, adjustment is a complex process. For a start Impairment does not linearly equate to disability, because disability has a social context, hence it is socially constructed (see Johnston, 1996). Therefore, the process of adjustment to brain injury is mitigated by internal and external, controllable and uncontrollable cognitive, emotional, social, and psychological factors.

The literature on adjustment diverts down many lines of enquiry. There is of course the founding theories of Kubler-Ross (1969) on the stages of grief. This model has undergone many updates moving away from a linear stage model of grief to an acceptance model describing the common feelings of loss in a wider context. This model has great therapeutic use in brain injury, but it still lacks the specificity in predicting positive adjustment and coping.

Of course brain injury carries with it an increased liklihood of specific cognitive factors that may affect coping. For example, reduced problem solving ability, mood dysregulation, lability, memory difficulties, reduced concentration and so on. However, researchers now believe the impact of this is less obvious than one might assume. For instance, although these cognitive dysfunctions are more prevalent in severe brain injuries, adjustment appears to be inversely correlated to severity self awareness and insight is not always a good thing (see Brown & Vandergoot, 1998 'quality of life' studies).

Poor adjustment has often been associated with self-blame, excessive worry, ruminative thoughts, wishful thinking, misuse of drugs and alcohol and general avoidance (Anson & Ponsford, 2006). In addition there appears to be a significant gender divide with females more likely to seek systemic support and males more likely to cope in isolation.

McColl et al. (1998) puts it simply: happier brain injury survivors want 'something to do, somewhere to live and someone to love'. In recent years reserachers have managed to specify positive predictors of adjustment. Some of these include:

-a problem solving approach
-low expectation of outcome and realistic hopes & goals
-internal locus of control
-healthy levels of self esteem
-Use of humour
-personal resilience
-high premorbid intelligence
-supportive families/home environments