Pain Disorders

I tell clients all the time: doctors can miss brain injuries because they don’t know your baseline — how you think, feel, or handle daily life. That’s why you and your loved ones need to pay attention to the warning signs. This series is designed to help you spot the symptoms of a traumatic brain injury and make sure your doctor has the information they need.

Problems with pain are common following brain injuries.

Headache

Perhaps the most common symptom of a brain injury is a headache. Symptoms can range from routine post-traumatic headaches to post-traumatic migraines. The severity of the headache and the duration of the symptoms depend on the severity of the injury and the type of head injury sustained.

Neuropathic pain

Neuropathic pain is a condition caused by injuries to the nervous system. This is hard to describe, but the nerves are excited, so pain is prevalent. This pain may be treated by medication.

Central pain syndrome

Central pain syndrome is pain that follows lesions to the central nervous system. If the brain develops lesions from the brain injury, then central pain syndrome may develop.