What is 'chemobrain'?

What is 'chemobrain'?

Christian Cable, Dr. Ryan Osborne & Dr. Noam Z. Drazin (Cancer Experts) gives expert video advice on: What is 'chemotherapy'?; What are the basic types of chemotherapy?; How does chemotherapy work? and more...

The best scientific explanation is just that we use high doses of toxic chemicals which were never intended to encounter the brain. And going through chemotherapy, whether a drug passes the blood brain barrier or not, some of it does, and it affects people. And so chemo brian has been described in many different ways. The most common manifestation is people have a slowing down of their thinking. Perhaps they were once very sharp with dates, and now they require a calendar to recall things. Perhaps you go to a party and there is someone you know but it takes awhile to get the name and perhaps you don't get the name until afterward. People who were quick with numbers often find that it takes awhile to regain their skill. It's a very real phenomenon. It has been studied mostly in ladies undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. And it seems like it is temporary, which I think is incouraging. So realize it's a common experience. It's a slowing down of mental acuity probably due to chemo therapy or some of it's side affects. It will not last forever. And I've actually had some people tell me it goes the other way around. Rather than feeling intellectually sluggish they actually feel hyper and have a harder time attending to things, almost like a new adult ADHD.