Be road-safety aware
PSYCHIATRIST: Buckle up, don’t drink and drive, don’t speed, stay alert and take break – Dr Pillay.
As holidaymakers get ready to take to the nation’s roads over the festive season, psychiatrists have warned not only of the tragic consequences of road accident fatalities but also the potential life-long impact due to traumatic brain injury for accident survivors.
With deaths from road accident injuries in South Africa about double the global average and a significant proportion of these deaths due to traumatic brain injury (TBI), there is even more reason to be road-safety aware, especially in high-volume periods like the holiday season, says Dr Anersha Pillay, a neuropsychiatrist and member of the Psychiatry Management Group (PsychMG).
“The risk of death or the lifelong impact of injury, coupled with unsafe roads, low traffic law enforcement and aggressive driving, with alcohol misuse a major contributor to traffic accidents, all add up to good reason to take the basic precautions – buckle up, don’t drink and drive, don’t speed, stay alert to the road surroundings at all times and take a break to sleep if needed,” said Dr Pillay.
“In addition to road accidents, South Africa’s high rate of traumatic brain injuries is also due to interpersonal violence, the leading cause of injury-related deaths in South Africa as well as the high involvement of pedestrians in road traffic accidents,” she added.
“There are two age-related peaks of those vulnerable to head injuries, the young (under 45) due to motor vehicle accidents, and the elderly due to falls.”
According to Dr Pillay, the effects of TBI can range from mild “concussion” with brief loss of consciousness through to severe and permanent damage, affecting the victims’ mental and physical health and functioning, as well as their employment, family and social life.
If symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, dizziness, difficulties in concentrating, depression, anxiety, changes in sleeping patterns, and irritability or a short temper persist after an accident or other head injury event, a medical professional such as a psychiatrist, neurologist or neurosurgeon should be consulted as soon as possible, Dr Pillay advised.
She said a traumatic brain injury could also lead to the onset of mental health disorders, depending on the severity of the head injury, exposure to recurrent head injuries and underlying factors such as a family history of psychiatric disorders.
“Depression, anxiety and post-traumatic disorders, as well as substance abuse, are more common in chronic TBI sufferers than in the general population, resulting either from the injury itself, the patient’s reaction to having been injured, or worsening of an underlying psychiatric disorder that was present before the injury,” she said. – ANA