DIFFERENTIAL-DIAGNOSIS OF AGITATION FOLLOWING BRAIN INJURY

Posttraumatic agitation is perhaps the most dramatic behavioral conseq uence of severe traumatic brain injury. The mechanism for this behavio r remains to be determined. The development of effective management st rategies has been hampered at least in part by the lack of a consensus definition for posttraumatic agitation. The diagnosis of posttraumati c agitation is a diagnosis of exclusion. Concurrent neurologic or medi cal decline during the recovery from an acute traumatic brain injury m ay precipitate delirium, which has many clinical features that overlap with posttraumatic agitation. Hence, the differential diagnosis of po sttraumatic agitation includes all medical and neurologic etiologies f or transient declines in consciousness and cognition.