In this video, attorney Joe Lamb, discussesJoe Knows Brains, the long-term side effects, and symptoms that many people suffer after sustaining a traumatic brain injury. Unfortunately, some of these can last for weeks, months, even years, and in some cases for the rest of their life. 

How Do Brain Injuries Affect the Senses
As we all know there are five senses, touch, vision, hearing, scent, and taste, and all of these can be affected by a brain injury depending on what area of the brain was affected. 

Touch is, of course, your ability to feel and interact with the environment around you. Unfortunately, for a certain percentage of brain injury suffers, their injury can result in a lack of sensation commonly called peripheral neuropathy in the hands and the feet. This can go from as small as numbness and tingling, up to a complete lack of ability to detect the environment around you. This can be dangerous for people because a lot of people who suffer from the symptom can't feel hot or cold.

The loss of the sense of smell is one of the lesser likely symptoms associated with brain injuries. Compared to every other animal in the animal kingdom, human beings don't really rely on their sense of smell as much. But of course, there are many things that a sense of smell is used for. It can be as innocuous as smelling freshly baked bread or as serious as, smelling mustard gas that has to do with gas leaks and even the smell of smoke because there's a fire in your house.

The same thing is true with taste, again, it's not near as common. If someone loses their sense of taste it drastically changes how much they enjoy certain foods or how they no longer enjoy eating at all. 

Turning to the sense of hearing. This is one of the more common brain injury implications. Loss of hearing can result in tinnitus or ringing in the ears, or the reverse, which is an extreme sensitivity to sound. And this can be demonstrated in two different manners. The first is when a brain injury prevents the brain from processing background noise, and the second is when the brain is no longer able to adjust the volume of sounds that it hears. But for some people, these loud noises can be extremely off-putting, and be extremely distracting. 

The loss of vision can also be associated with a brain injury. Blindness is a symptom that can be associated with brain injuries. It is a very serious one as is deafness. It can be incredibly detrimental to someone's life. 

Most Common Side Effects of Brain Injuries
A common side effect after suffering a brain injury is narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is the sudden onset of drowsiness at unexpected
times throughout the day. Many people associate narcolepsy with daytime sleepiness or excessive daytime sleepiness. It can be a very dangerous condition. It's very tough because these people can fall asleep anywhere. They can fall asleep in front of a hospital, they can fall asleep at the wheel, or on a bicycle. For many of them, driving becomes something they just simply cannot do anymore. Even something as innocuous as making toast. These lifestyle changes can be permanent.

Secondary Impact Syndrome and Post-Concussive Syndrome
Once an individual suffers a concussion, for about 90% of people, their symptoms will dissipate over about two weeks to a month. For some, it can take as long as six months, and for some symptoms, it can take up to a year. But pretty commonly amongst neurologists who treat TBIs, they'll tell you that after a year any symptoms that remain are considered permanent. The condition of having these concussion symptoms far longer than to be expected is known as post-concussive syndrome. 

Secondary impact syndrome is when someone suffers a concussion and then suffers a second concussion within the next days or weeks. This can be a very serious injury. And it's almost significantly more likely to lead to 
post-concussive syndrome. This is a big part of why sporting events are starting to take concussions much more seriously. Because for football, for example, the concussion itself is not the serious risk, it's the follow-up
concussion they sustain after the first one.

Post-concussive syndrome is as simple as it sounds. It's just when the symptoms of a concussion, such as headaches, dizziness, nausea, don't dissipate after weeks or months relative to how long it should take for them to dissipate. For example, cognitive symptoms tend to resolve themselves within a few weeks to a month after a concussion. However, certain more deep-rooted issues such as balance concerns, these can take longer for the body to adjust and memory issues are another one that can take up to six months. But in many people, about 10 to 15% of folks who've suffered a brain injury, one or more of those symptoms will either take significantly longer than expected, which can be years to resolve or ultimately never resolve.