Psychological outcome after severe traumatic brain injury in adolescents and young adults: The chronic phase

ABSTRACT

Objectives. Young individuals surviving severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) frequently experience a wide range of cognitive, emotional and behavioural consequences. This cross-sectional follow-up study investigated psychological outcome of young survivors in the chronic phase, and whether psychological outcome was associated with improvement of functional abilities during sub-acute admission.

Methods. Patients, who acquired a severe TBI during adolescence or early adulthood (n = 36) and received early intensive rehabilitation, were contacted for follow-up assessment concerning psychological outcome and completed the Adult Self Report 18–59 (ASR18-59). Demographic data, functional outcomes and severity measures were obtained from the local database.

Results. The participants had a mean age of 24.1 years (SD = 4.1) at follow-up, and the mean time since injury was 72.1 months (SD = 44.2). Results showed significantly higher scores compared with the normative reference population in relation to the subscales withdrawal/isolation (p = 0.013), attention problems (p = 0.008) and intrusive behaviour (p = 0.046). Pearson correlation analyses showed that young survivors experiencing more functional improvement during inpatient rehabilitation had fewer psychological problems during the chronic phase in the subscales: withdrawal/isolation, rule breaking, intrusive behaviour and total problems.

Conclusion. Young patients reported psychological problems in several areas during the chronic phase of injury, which may hinder complete reintegration and participation in society. Larger functional improvement during sub-acute rehabilitation seemed to be associated with less psychological problems in the chronic phase.

KEYWORDS:

• psychological outcome
• TBI
• young adults
• adolescents
• chronic phase

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the participants in the study and the staff of the Department of Neurorehabilitation, Traumatic Brain Injury, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark. Further, the authors acknowledge the help of Dr Ashley Smith Watts, representing the INS ILC Research and Editing Consulting Program. Dr Watts provided valuable feedback on language and grammar.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.