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Topics: Domestic Abuse, Health, Mental Health, Science, Psychology
Warning: This article contains discussion of domestic violence which some readers may find distressing.
A neuroradiologist has explained more about the 'abnormalities' he discovered in a scan, after examining a patient who had been experiencing extreme waves of anger.
The patient, called Brenden, had appeared on a chat show in the US after his desperate wife Natasha reached breaking point after suffering domestic abuse at his hands due to his temper.
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He had been screaming at her, and 'pushing her in the face' in fits of rage.
The couple appeared on Dr Phil's show, and Brenden underwent a scan to see if he was suffering from any 'abnormalities' in his brain.
What the expert found shocked him, as Brenden had said he had never experienced an 'impactful head trauma', but the results suggested otherwise.
Dr Bradley Jabour is one of the world's leading neuroradiologists, and he revealed Brenden 'has seven distinct areas of scarring' on his brain and confirmed there were differences, which could be contributing to his temper and flying off the handle.
He told Brenden: 'For some reason, this anxiety and fear that just torments you, triggers an anger where you will act out and maybe even hurt other people you love around you.'
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"The question for me today is, really, is your brain structurally normal? So we have these powerful techniques which can look at the architecture of your brain, but also get an idea of the functioning of your brain.
"So we're looking for any possible stigmata of brain injury which could be caused by other things other than actual injury', and the results came as a surprise.
"I was surprised, you know, in talking to Brenden initially, and he mentioned that he had never had any experience of an impactful head trauma," the expert then told Dr Phil.
"And we see evidence that looks like at some point somewhere, somebody should sit with Brenden and try and find out, when did he get a hit on the head or knocked unconscious, possibly something that maybe he doesn't remember, but it probably did happen, because there's several of these areas of gliosis were scar tissue."
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An emotional Brenden was reduced to tears as the consultant shared the results.
The scarring was mostly in the frontal lobes, and that he encouraged Brenden to find out what happened in his early years.
However, Dr Jabour did add: "I'm not sure if you can tie in the anger issues with a particular moment in his life, or has he always been angry, even as a 12, 13, 15-year-old?" and stressed more examination is needed.
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He was asked if Brenden's brain was abnormal, to which he replied: "Abnormal? Yes?"
Viewers were left asking questions about Brenden's childhood, with one writing: "I wonder if perhaps he was abused as a child. So sad."
One person replied: "Not everything is 'abuse'. As a child I had at least two quite severe head knocks. A paint tin fell on my head around 8yo, couple of years later rode my new bike head-on into a brick wall at quite a high speed downhill. I've had behaviour and mental issues most of my life and can't help feeling there's a connection."
One viewer shared how emotional it must have been for Brenden: "When everyone has blamed you all your life and suddenly someone tells you that it’s not your fault."
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"So sad . At least he’s finding he’s not just crazy and angry . He has a problem," empathised another.
"Everyone is saying he looks broken after hearing the results, but I think it’s more a release of emotions bc he has an answer and its a relief to himself that’s he not a horrible person but that he actually has a problem out of his control. Now that he know though it is on him to learn how to cope, recover, and better himself so he can treat others as they should be treated," added one viewer.