Prior Mental Health Problems May Increase Risk of PTSD, MDD Following mTBI

Certain patients who experience mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) may be at especially increased risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depressive disorder (MDD) following injury, according to astudy published this week inJAMA Psychiatry.“We observed that having an antecedent mental health problem prior to TBI [traumatic brain injury] was an exceptionally strong risk factor for having PTSD or MDD postinjury,” wrote author Murray B. Stein, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California, San Diego and colleagues. “[T]his finding underscores the importance of clinicians being aware of the mental health history of their patients with mTBI, as this information is central to expectations regarding both short-term and long-term outcome.”For this large, multisite study, Stein and colleagues included some 1,200 civilian patients whose head injury occurred within 24 hours of emergency department admission, who received a CT scan, and who scored 13 to 15 on the Glascow Coma Scale. About 20% of these patients reported having a psychiatric history (patients with what the authors referred to as “major debilitating mental disorders—for example, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder”—were excluded from the trial). Patients took the PTSD Checklist forDSM-5(PCL-5) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) at the start of the trial and again at two weeks and three, six, and 12 months postinjury. The researchers also included a comparison group of 230 pa...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: assault brain emergency department injury intervention JAMA Psychiatry mental health status mTBI Murray Stein surveillance violence Source Type: research