ABI is a damage to the brain structures involving a change in neuronal activity that affects the physical integrity, metabolic activity or functional capacity of brain cells. It occurs after birth and, therefore, it is not of congenital origin, nor it is hereditary or degenerative. The life of those affected by severe ABI changes dramatically and also the life of the people around them. From one day to another they find themselves unable to fulfil the social role they had until then and, in many cases, that leads to dependence situations similar to those of people with advanced dementia.
ABI is a damage to the brain structures involving a change in neuronal activity that affects the physical integrity, metabolic activity or functional capacity of brain cells. It occurs after birth and, therefore, it is not of congenital origin, nor it is hereditary or degenerative.
ABI has different aetiologies: cerebrovascular accidents (strokes, cerebral thrombosis, embolism or apoplexy, also known as cerebral haemorrhage), head trauma (often caused by traffic accidents), cerebral anoxia (deprivation of oxygen to the brain usually due to a cardiac arrest, drug abuse, smoke inhalation or suffocation), brain tumours and brain infections (mostly herpes encephalitis). 


The range of potential problems or consequences that ABI sufferers may present varies depending on the seriousness of the damage, which may be mild, moderate or severe in any of the following dimensions: physical, psychological, cognitive, emotional and social. 

The consequences can be temporary or permanent and they can cause partial or total deficit and/or psychosocial maladjustment. To understand the problem, suffice it to remember that the brain controls all vital functions, from the most basic ones (breathing, blood pressure, heart rate) to the more sophisticated ones (artistic creativity, abstraction, emotions).


The life of those affected by severe ABI changes dramatically and also the life of the people around them. From one day to another they find themselves unable to fulfil the social role they had until then and, in many cases, that leads to dependence situations similar to those of people with advanced dementia.