PTSD Risks Increase With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury According to Recent Study

According to researchers the risk of developing PTSD increases after a mild traumatic brain injury. Researchers from a variety of organizations which included Washington University in St. Louis, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, San Francisco General Hospital, and the University of California, San Francisco performed evaluations on various factors that were related to mental health and functioning issues. The hope is that understanding how this type of injury affects mental health and contributes to PTSD and other mental disorders will lead to better screening, more accurate detection and diagnosis, and earlier treatment for post traumatic stress disorder. The impact that mTBI had was explored in emergency services providers who were civilians rather than evaluating the impact on military personnel. In the study roughly 27% of patients who had suffered mTBI screened positive for PTSD at a follow up screening 6 months after their injury.

The study on PTSD and mild traumatic brain injury was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma and the findings show the importance of following up after a mTBI. Medical College of Virginia Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, professor and Journal of Neurotrauma editor in chief John T. Povlishock, Ph.D. explained “This study represents yet another important communication originating from the CDC and the TRACK-TBI study group that now reframes PTSD within the context of civilian TBI. The finding of a relatively significant proportion of civilian patients experiencing PTSD following mild TBI calls for its more routine evaluation, particularly in those patients with the added comorbid factors identified in this report.”