The speed of urban life accounts for an increasing number of cranial injuries, which may not necessarily prove fatal, but often result in distressing and disabling headaches and dizzy sensations. These symptoms have been difficult to relieve. Patients with such symptoms form a persistent group in the traumatic clinic of Dr. Forrester, Dr. Lyman and myself, and they continue to report until the supply of palliative measures is exhausted. Often these complaints may be stimulated or aggravated by the desire for compensation or by anticipation of a successful lawsuit. This feature should not, however, lead one to discount these symptoms, for we have observed the same prolonged discomfort in a number of independent, intelligent patients in whom desire for compensation (or revenge) played no part.
All these patients complain of similar persistent headache, sensations of dizziness, restlessness and, usually, increased fatigue. These symptoms may last for a few months to