Recovery from mild traumatic brain injury: Risk factors and prevention of long term complaints

Mild traumatic brain injury is one of the most common neurological disorders in the world. Each year, approximately 600 of every 100.000 adults sustain a mild traumatic brain injury as the result of a blunt impact to the head. The first few weeks after injury, most patients experience complaints such as headache, dizziness, forgetfulness, irritability and fatigue. These complaints resolve in the majority of patients, who will return to their previous level of functioning within three months after injury. However, a relatively large subgroup (20-25%) has complaints that can persist for months to even years, interfering with their resumption of work and other activities. In her dissertation, Myrthe Scheenen investigates the risk factors for developing persisting complaints after mild traumatic brain injury. Her research also investigates a newly developed preventative cognitive behavioral intervention to improve outcome and prevent persisting complaints. Five sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy were compared to five sessions of telephone counseling. It was found that besides reported complaints, psychological factors such as depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress are important risk factors for an unfavorable outcome. Although it cannot be ruled out that both interventions had a positive effect, the patients that received telephone counseling reported less complaints at six months and had a more favorable recovery at twelve months when compared to the patients that received the cognitive behavioral therapy.