Psychiatric disorders often occur concomitantly with spinal cord injury. However, the relationship between psychiatric disorders and spinal cord injury (SCI) remains unclear.
The study was to investigate the correlation between psychiatric disorders and SCI.
Methods:
During the 10-year study period, 71253 patients spinal cord injury were enrolled for analysis. The study was to conduct a retrospective cohort study to assess whether psychiatric disorders were an independent risk factor of SCI. Newly diagnosed SCI outpatients (N=71253) during the years 2000-2009 by the Taiwan National Health Research Institute. We categorized psychiatric disorders into four main disorders, including depression disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and major depressive disorder recurrent episode. The prevalence of each psychiatric disorder before and after SCI was estimated respectively. McNemar’s test was performed to compare the paired prevalence of each disorder before and after SCI.
Results:
There was significantly higher prevalence after SCI than before SCI in depression disorders (12.1% vs. 9.2%, P <0.0001), schizophrenia (1.4% vs. 1.1%, P <0.02). It was significantly lower prevalence after SCI than before SCI in anxiety disorders (3.8% vs. 6.0%, P < 0.0001), and major depressive disorder recurrent episode (0.2% vs. 0.6%, P < 0.001). Among the subgroups of cognitive disorders, the prevalence of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders was significantly elevated after SCI (2.1% vs. 1.4%, P = 0.001). Among the subgroups of mood disorders, the prevalence of Unspecified schizophrenia was elevated after SCI (1.4% vs. 1.1%, P < 0.02).
Conclusion:
The prevalence of schizophrenia and depression disorders, and other psychotic disorders otherwise specified tended to increase after SCI.Our current study is a population-based study with a large, nationally cohort sample. The study showed that psychiatric disorders in patients may be associated with the development of spinal cord injury, and that this risk was more predominant in young patients. The comorbidities of chronic kidney disease, hyperlipidemia, this may have had an impact among spinal cord injury patients