Challenging behaviour profiles of people with acquired brain injury living in community settings

Abstract

A systematic assessment of challenging behaviours in community settings has revealed the profiles of broad behavioural disturbance that can occur following ABI. Assessing the breadth of disturbance is important in understanding a client's presentation and thus planning appropriate behaviour management interventions.

Family involvement in behaviour management following acquired brain injury (ABI) in community settings: A systematic review

“…Although physical and verbal aggression are the most commonly investigated [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] , there are other serious behavioural outcomes following ABI. These include sexually inappropriate behaviours [15][16][17] , socially inappropriate behaviours 2,6 , absconding 18 , apathy 19,20 , lack of initiation 6 , reduced social skills 21 , disinhibition 22 , irritability 19,23 , and mood disorders 24,25 .…”

“…Depending on the nature and location of the brain injury, the extent of damage and long-term implications will vary for each individual 1,4 . Behavioural issues are considered one of the leading causes of frustration in the care of individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) in rehabilitative settings 5 and also the most detrimental in the long-term as the individual attempts to reintegrate back into the community 6 . Families experience significant burden in coming to terms with the brain injury, and are then faced with the challenges associated with caring for and managing the person's behaviours within their homes and communities 7 .…”

Modelling verbal aggression, physical aggression and inappropriate sexual behaviour after acquired brain injury

“…Owing to the comprehensive nature of the clinical programmes and the use of behavioural data in both individual assessment and organizational outcomes, there were no missing data for these participants. This approach is a substantial advance over many other studies investigating such behavioural disorders after brain injury, which are typically forced to rely on judgements by health professionals [11,16] and/or patients' families [3,10,13] that are often made some time after the incidents in question. This introduces potential unwanted error arising from memory biases and distortions and therefore represents a major limitation to such studies.…”

“…While there have been a number of studies investigating the nature and clinical correlates of aggressive behaviours following brain injury [3,[8][9][10][11][12][13], only a handful have looked at inappropriate sexual behaviours [7,9,14 -18]. Fewer still have addressed both aggressive and inappropriate sexual behaviours within the same sample of patients, with mixed results to date concerning the co-occurrence of these behaviours [7,17,18].…”

“…Disorders of behavioural regulation, including verbal aggression, physical aggression and inappropriate sexual behaviour, are problematic and relatively common sequelae of severe acquired brain injury [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. While there have been a number of studies investigating the nature and clinical correlates of aggressive behaviours following brain injury [3,[8][9][10][11][12][13], only a handful have looked at inappropriate sexual behaviours [7,9,14 -18].…”