ABSTRACT
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death for citizens of the US under the age of 45. There are 56,000 deaths and 373,000 hospital admissions annually, 99,000 of which result from moderate to severe brain injury. Annual costs associated with TBI in the US are estimated to be over $25 billion. The majority of the costs are paid for by taxpayers. Individual lifetime costs can exceed $4 million (Brooks, Lindstrom, McCray, & Whiteneck, 1995). Improved early medical management has improved outcome following severe traumatic brain injury (Baxt & Moody, 1987) but evidence for positive effects of treatment after acute medical rescue has been difficult to obtain. Central questions for those involved in rehabilitation should be: (1) Is rehabilitation effective? and (2) Do the benefits outweigh the costs?
