Brain Damaged... recovery?

[madness88]

My friend was rushed to hospital after an overdose. She overdosed on anthetamines, it was a one off as she has never done anything like this before. She was diagnosed with PTSD 3 weeks ago and started taking this to keep her awake due to the nightmares she didnt want to experience. After 90 hours of no sleep she ended up overdosing and was in a coma for 9 hours. Weve been told she has damaged the brain and now she cant speak, just gone mute. Will she ever recover from this??

[ubasses]

No medical knowledge but when my Mum had a major stroke, she could not talk for several weeks, but with a lot of help from the hospital she eventually rcovered her speech completely. The brain is wonderful sometimes

[rowanwitch]

Too soon to tell unless the part of the brain that controls speech has been totally destroyed//// she will need lots of speech therapy input before a final decision will be reached. If she can't speak but her other processes are intact she will be able to use a' type speech' synthesizer ' or other aid... but she will need loads of support from friends and family as she has a long road ahead

[Sqad]

Much too early to make a reasonable comment.

I presume that she is now fully recovered consciousness, but just can.t speak and IF this is the case, then it is likely that her speech will return.....BUT too early to be certain.

[Sqad]

I have had further thoughts and Ibdeel that it is extremely unlikely that following an overdose, that only the speech area has been damaged. Very, very unusual.without paralysis of the limbs or face. This is a very discreet damage and in my opinion unlikely to be of organic cause, more likely functional.....in which case speech should return. I am making a lot of assumptions here with very little facts available.

[puddle-duck]

I'm so sorry to read this. I don't have any medical knowledge but I really hope your friend makes it through this.

[rowanwitch]

Another possibility is the loss of speech is a stress thing...a young neighbour suffered it... everything else worked but it was weird she couldn't make a sound Took about a couple of months to come back to normal

[NOX]

I have a longstanding brain injury and I have to say although it wasn't damage caused by an overdose, it was an injury- my symptoms when it first happened were far and away worse than they are now. If you met me now you'd not really notice unless you knew me well what the issues are, but at the time I was struggling with speech and recognition and all sorts of other things, so i think there may be a great deal of hope for your friend- I certainly wish her well.

[daffy654]

Could it be hysterical mutism?
If she is suffering severe depression her mutism may be nothing to do with a physical problem.

[Sqad]

daffy and rowanwith

\\\This is a very discreet damage and in my opinion unlikely to be of organic cause, more likely functional...\\\

I agree with your points and that is what i meant by "functional" in my post"