or nontraumatic injury derived from either an internal or external source (e.g. stroke, brain tumours, infection, poisoning, hypoxia, ischemia, encephalopathy or substance abuse).

[1] While research has demonstrated that thinking and behavior may be altered in virtually all forms of ABI, brain injury is itself a very complex phenomenon having dramatically varied effects.

[4] How the patient copes with the injury has been found to influence the level at which they experience the emotional complications correlated with ABI.

[5] Passive coping has been characterized by the person choosing not to express emotions and a lack of motivation which can lead to poor outcomes for the individual.

Physical therapy and other professions may be utilized post- brain injury in order to control muscle tone,[12] regain normal movement patterns, and maximize functional independence.

Music therapy may assist patients to improve gait, arm swing while walking, communication, and quality of life after experiencing a stroke.

[15] Due to few random control trials and generally weak evidence, more research is needed to gain a complete understanding of the ideal type and parameters of therapeutic interventions for treatment of acquired brain injuries.

Some strategies for rehabilitating the memory of those affected by ABI have used repetitive tasks to attempt to increase the patients' ability to recall information.

[17] Self-imagining has been found to improve recognition memory by coding the event in a manner that is more individually salient to the subject.

[19] Involvement in social situations is important for the normal development of children as a means of gaining an understanding of how to effectively work together with others.

[20] It is important for rehabilitation programs to deal with these challenges specific to children who have not fully developed at the time of their injury.