The 2025 film HIM follows a quarterback’s descent into madness after brain trauma. This current wide-release brings cinematic attention to a real medical nightmare: post-traumatic psychosis. This devastating condition is reported to affect 0.7% of traumatic brain injury patients, typically emerging 4-5 years after the initial trauma.

Among those who develop post-traumatic psychosis, research funded by such institutions as the NIH, reveals 92% of patients develop delusions while 87% experience hallucinations, with brain scans showing frontal and temporal lobe damage. Medical literature documents chilling cases, including a man who developed paranoid delusions and personality changes decades after a gunshot wound to his frontal lobe, and another patient who couldn’t recognize familiar people following severe head trauma.

Dr. David Arciniegas, Director of Education at Marcus Institute for Brain Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, notes that, “delusions are a core feature of posttraumatic psychosis,” making diagnosis critical. The federal government invests heavily in brain injury research, so hopefully there will soon be more understanding of this condition.