Emotional and behavioral adjustment after traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Objectives: To examine emotional and behavioral adjustment and recovery over 1 year after traumatic brain injury (TBI), and to determine whether the difficulties, if present, are due to neurologic insult.

Design: Longitudinal evaluation of adjustment from 1 month to 1 year after injury.

Setting: Level I trauma center at a university hospital.

Patients: One hundred fifty-seven consecutively hospitalized adults with TBI and 125 trauma controls with other system injuries evaluated at 1 and 12 months after injury.

Main outcome measures: Katz Adjustment Scale (KAS).

Results: The TBI group at 1 year follow-up demonstrated significant emotional and behavioral maladjustment, but such difficulties did not appear to be mediated by the brain injury, since the KAS scores for the TBI and trauma control groups were not significantly different. Those with moderate TBI reported greater difficulties than those with mild or severe injuries. Changes in adjustment over 1 year were common for both groups. Within the TBI group there was differential recovery: improvement in cognitive clarity, dysphoric mood, and emotional stability, but increased difficulties with anger management, antisocial behaviors, and self-monitoring.

Conclusions: These results raise questions about commonly held beliefs that those with mild TBI report greater distress, and clarify some misconceptions regarding change in emotional and behavioral functioning over time.