Traumatic Brain Injury or Mental Illness?
TBI and Mental Illness What if a defendant commits a crime because of being affected by either an acute brain injury or an acquired or inherited brain disease? This is called the “brain defense.” In…
TBI and Mental Illness What if a defendant commits a crime because of being affected by either an acute brain injury or an acquired or inherited brain disease? This is called the “brain defense.” In…
Alcohol, trauma, or underlying medical condition? The legal limit of blood alcohol content is set by the US Department of Motor Vehicles at 0.08%. However, not everyone presents the same way clinically, as different individuals…
What is a Microsleep? Have you ever been sitting in front of your computer and dozed off for a brief second, only to be jerked awake by a head-snap? If so, you have experienced a…
Did you Know? Anxiety disorders develop from risk factors such as genetics, brain chemistry life events and personality. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States. Approximately 40 million adults age…
A strange occurrence at a Massachusetts hospital Articles by Forensic Magazine and New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Between 2012 to 2016, fourteen patients showed up at a Massachusetts hospital with a strange problem. All…
In April, I covered delirium and noted that there are many underlying etiologies that can cause it. One such etiology is Wernicke encephalopathy. What is encephalopathy? Encephalopathy is a general term describing any disease of…
In April, I covered delirium and noted that there are many underlying etiologies that can cause it. One such etiology is hypoperfusion. When the blood flow is cut off to the vital organs, the body…
In April, I covered delirium and noted that there are many underlying etiologies that can cause it. One of those etiologies is a condition called hypertensive crisis, or more specifically, hypertensive encephalopathy. If you have…
This month we have a guest author. Thank you to Eleanor Ruth for providing this newsletter/blog post for us! Psychosis is a condition that distorts attunement with reality. Throughout the years, there have been many…
In April, I covered delirium and noted that there are many underlying etiologies that can cause it. One of those underlying causes is brain injuries, or intracranial processes such as stroke, tumor or traumatic injury.…
For both prosecutors and defense attorneys, it’s often important to know the defendant’s state of mind to litigate the case. If a defendant has a medical condition or traumatic injury that could result in hypoxia…
In many of our cases we come across symptoms of delirium and are asked to determine if they are due to the assumed etiology, like alcohol or drug intoxication; or from something else, like seizures,…