Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:44:37.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Psychiatric sequelae of minor head injury. A prospective follow-up study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

T Middelboe
Affiliation:
Departments of Neurology, Bispebjerg Hospital, Distriktspsykiatrisk Center, Møntmestervej 17, DK-2400, Copenhagen, NV Psychiatry, Bispebjerg Hospital, Distriktspsykiatrisk Center, Møntmestervej 17, DK-2400, Copenhagen, NV Institute of Personality Theory and Psychopathology, University of Copenhagen, Nordvang Hospital, DK-2600, Glostrup, Denmark
HS Andersen
Affiliation:
Departments of Neurology, Bispebjerg Hospital, Distriktspsykiatrisk Center, Møntmestervej 17, DK-2400, Copenhagen, NV Psychiatry, Bispebjerg Hospital, Distriktspsykiatrisk Center, Møntmestervej 17, DK-2400, Copenhagen, NV Institute of Personality Theory and Psychopathology, University of Copenhagen, Nordvang Hospital, DK-2600, Glostrup, Denmark
M Birket-Smith
Affiliation:
Institute of Personality Theory and Psychopathology, University of Copenhagen, Nordvang Hospital, DK-2600, Glostrup, Denmark
ML Friis
Affiliation:
Departments of Neurology, Bispebjerg Hospital, Distriktspsykiatrisk Center, Møntmestervej 17, DK-2400, Copenhagen, NV
Get access

Summary

Psychiatric morbidity was measured in a prospective follow-up study of 51 patients admitted to hospital after minor head injury. By means of self report questionnaires (eg General Health Questionnaire (SHQ) and Impact of Event Scale), semistructured interviews and symptom-checklists, it was found that nearly half of the patients suffered considerable discomfort after 1 week. Improvement during the 3 months follow-up was generally poor. Both concussional symptoms and stress response contributed to the compromised well-being as measured by the GHQ, but outcome did not correlate to severity of injury. The GHQ-60 score of 1 week showed a strong positive correlation with outcome after 3 months. The incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder was low.

Type
Original article
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier, Paris 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Revised version. (DSM III-R). Washington DCGoogle Scholar
Andersen, HSMiddelboe, TChristensen, AK (1989) Posttraumatic stress disorder. 1. Background. Ugeskr Laeg 151, 22422245Google ScholarPubMed
Bech, P (1990) Methodological problems in assessing quality of life as outcome in psychopharmacology. A multiaxial approach. In: Methodology and Evaluation of Psychotropic Drugs (Benkert, OMaier, WRickels, K eds) Springer, HeidelbergGoogle Scholar
Coonley-Hoganson, RSachs, NDesai, TWhitman, S (1984) Sequelae associated with head injuries in patients who were not hospitalized. Neurosurgery 14, 315317CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cronbach, LJGleser, GCNanada, HRajaratman, N (1972) The Generability of Behavioural Measurements. Wiley, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, DWilliams, P (1988) A users’ guide to the General Health Questionnaire. NFER-Nelson, WindsorGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, MJWilner, NAlvarez, W (1979) Impact of event scale: a measure of subjective stress. Psychosom Med 41, 209218CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keshavan, MSChannabasavanna, SMReddy, GNN (1981) Posttraumatic disturbances: Patterns and predictors of outcome. Br J Psychiatr 138, 157160CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kozol, HL (1946) Pretraumatic personality and psychiatric sequelae of head injury. Arch Neurol Psychiatr 56, 245275CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levin, HSMattis, FRuff, Ret al(1987) Neurobehavioural outcome following minor head injury. J Neurosurg 66, 234243CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lidval, HFLinderoth, BNorlin, B (1974) Causes of the postconcussional syndrome. Acta Neurol Scand (suppl) 56, 1144Google Scholar
Lishman, WA (1987) Head injury. In: Organic Psychiatry. 2nd ed Blackwell, Oxford, 139186Google Scholar
Loewinger, J (1948) The technique of homogenous tests compared with some aspects of scale analysis and factor analysis. Psychol Bull 45, 507529CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malt, UF (1989) The validity of the GHQ in a sample of accidentally injured adults. Acta Psychiatr Scand (suppl 355) 80, 103112CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malt, UF (1988) The long-term psychiatric consequences of accidental injury. Br J Psychiatr 153, 810818CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mellergård, M (1967) Postconcussional complaints. Thesis, Munksgaard, Copenhagen, p 165>>Google Scholar
Miller, H (1961) Accident neurosis. Br Med J 1, 919925CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Modlin, HC (1967) The postaccident anxiety syndrome: Psychosocial aspects. Am J Psychiatr 123, 10081012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mokken, RJ (1971) A Theory and Procedure of Scale Analysis with Applications in Political Research. Monton, BerlinCrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Shaugnessy, EJFowler, RSReid, V (1984) Sequelae of mild closed head injury. J Family Pract 18, 391394Google Scholar
Povlistock, JTBecker, DPCheng, CLYVaughan, GW (1983) Axonal change in minor head injury. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 42, 225242CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Relander, MTroupp, HBjørkesten, G (1972) Controlled trial of treatment for cerebral concussion. Br Med J 4, 777779CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rimel, RWGiordani, BBarth, JTBoll, JTJane, JA (1981) Disability caused by minor head injury. Neurosurgery 9, 221228Google ScholarPubMed
Rutherford, WHMerret, JDMcDonald, JR (1977) Sequelae of concussion caused by minor head injury. Lancet, Jan, 14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabers, AHeyn, JKarle, APakkenberg, H (1988) Computerized tomography in minor head trauma. Ugeskr Lœ 150, 11611163Google Scholar
Symonds, C (1962) Concussion and its sequelae. Lancet i, 15CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.