Post-traumatic stress disorder following minor and severe closed head injury: 10 single cases

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was found to occur after minor or severe closed head injury in 10 single cases which are reported in detail. They were drawn from 312 cases of closed head injury who were referred for neuropsychological assessment or neurorehabilitation. All cases which had been given both diagnoses are presented. Information was collected retrospectively from case notes and reports. It is argued that a continuum of experience, which represents the entirety of an event, is not necessary for PTSD to occur, but that a "window' of real or imagined experience which results from loss of consciousness and post-traumatic amnesia after closed head injury need not prevent the symptoms of PTSD from arising, although they may make them less likely and the phenomenon of the dual diagnoses relatively rare. The issue of whether PTSD found following closed head injury is a subclassification of PTSD is raised.