My 19 year old son had a bad year last year. He had his first episode of psychosis and subsequently got diagnosed with schizophrenia. We struggled to find the right medication and he had three hospitalizations. After the third hospitalization we started him on clozapine and is seemed to help but he wasn’t at a theraputic dose. On October 25th of last year he was a passenger in a rollover accident. He sustained a severe diffuse axonal injury (traumatic brain injury). He is making a good recovery physically but it has been a battle. He has had to relearn how to talk and eat. He cannot walk on his own yet as he is too unstable. They have restarted the clozapine but are going slow because of the brain injury and needing to wake up the brain. He does not seem to be responding to the clozapine as well as he had prior to the accident. He still is not at a therapeutic level but he wasn’t just prior to the accident.
Is there anyone on here whose loved one had schizophrenia PRIOR to a traumatic brain injury? If so how did the schizophrenia or treatment of it change after the TBI?
I can find all sorts of things about schizophrenia as a result of a TBI but nothing when the schizophrenia preceded the TBI.
I am sorry @AmyinColorado but I cannot help you. My daughter had several severe head injuries during her life before sz, then one more after sz, but it was not TBI. I am sorry to her your son is not responding as well to his medication. What a struggle he is going through. And you too.
I am so sorry to hear this about your son. You posted the title of this thread very descriptively, so maybe there will be some comments come through soon or over time. The only other thing I can think of is to go to the site NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) and under “Popular Resources” go to the ProMed area of the site. From there, you can search by topic. I have found this useful to look up information that is not commonly found elsewhere. Some medical sites require a subscription, but this one does not. It compiles medical research articles from different sources.
You might also reach out to major teaching hospitals like Mayo Clinic, John Hopkins, or any that are well known for treating SZ (there are others but I’m not sure I can provide a good list). They could be very interested in helping your son.
Hello. I realize that your post was a while ago, but am wondering if you have received any information regarding the brain injury affecting the schizophrenia? My son also had a TBI two years ago, and I have not been able to find any information on this either.
Welcome to this Forum. A general response to your question is that serious mental illness like schizophrenia is believed to have a genetic component with an environmental trigger. So a TBI could be a trigger. The important thing to realize is that there is nothing we or anyone else did to cause this kind of an illness. Accidents happen, and something else could have triggered it later. I think it is relatively rare that we can pinpoint an exact trigger, although some events do stand out. We can’t prove it, however.
Thank you, but you may have misunderstood. My son had schizophrenia for years, then obtained a TBI from a fall he took. The TBI did not trigger the schizophrenia, he already was living with the illness. My question was if anyone had experience with a TBI AFTER schizophrenia was already diagnosed, and how the TBI affected the illness.
You’re right. I misunderstood. Maybe someone else will pick up on this. Also, you might check this medical site: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ You create a free account and can search the database on any medical topic. If it has been researched or any study done on it, it is probably there.