| Learning Objective #1: explain the relationship between chronic stress and post-traumatic brain injury depression | |||
| Learning Objective #2: explain the relationship between somatic symptoms and post-traumatic brain injury depression |
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant international concern, with 1.5 million new cases of brain injury occurring annually in the
Eighty-four community dwelling persons who sustained a mild-to-moderate TBI and were evaluated in an outpatient rehabilitation setting participated in this study. Three hypotheses were tested:
Measures included: IMPACT, a computerized cognitive battery (IMPACTä), Perceived Stress and the Impact of Event Scales, the Fatigue Impact and McGill Pain Scales, the Neurobehavioral Functioning Inventory, and a brain injury symptom score. In person data collection was conducted.
Those participating were ages 18-60, equally balanced for severity of injury and gender and between 1-38 months from their injury date. Multiple regression analysis revealed that only verbal memory and reaction time on the IMPACT significantly predicted depressive symptoms. Sixty-nine percent of the variance in depressive symptoms was explained by perceived and event-related chronic stress, pain, brain injury symptoms, and income level. Surprisingly, cognitive burden was not significant in the final regression models.
These results indicate that for community dwelling persons without severe TBI who were evaluated and treated in outpatient clinics, they are still experiencing significant levels of chronic stress which predicts their depression levels. Given that these persons are on average within 15 months from their date of injury, it is critical that interventions towards stress management be targeted earlier to attenuate depression levels.