My husband came off his motorbike 3 months ago. He was knocked out for a few minutes. He went to the Casualty Department and they said his X-ray was normal. However, he has not got back to his old self and is tired all the time. He can’t cope at work. Could this be depression?
Anybody who has been knocked out, even very briefly, is likely to have a period of fatigue sometimes for up to 6 months. Knockout blows are not as benign as they seem in films. A blow that is sufficiently severe to impair consciousness is likely also to have disrupted the deeper regions of the brain as it is swirled about in the skull. The brain has a jelly-like consistency and is attached to the rest of the nervous system by a central stalk, which contains the nerve centres controlling alertness. If these are shaken up (as is usually the case in head injury), fatigue results.
The usual process after head injury of this kind is for headache to be prominent at first, often with dizziness (as the balance organs are Causes of depression often also disrupted). Then fatigue, poor concentration and irritability occur. It is vital to be aware of all this so that your husband does not return to work too soon, as this will tend to exacerbate the fatigue and reduce his confidence. Careful support and understanding on your part and that of your family and his employers is very important. Return to work should be gradual, but may well take up to 6 months.
This is not usually evidence of depression, but may lead on to that, if recovery is slow or misunderstood, and he starts to lose hope, expecting to be ill – even brain damaged – when this is not the case. The vast majority of people with a brief loss of consciousness or a post-traumatic amnesia of less than 24 hours (inability to remember events from the time of the accident) will return to their normal selves, but slowly, over a course of up to 6 months.
