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Major Depression Major Cause of Disability Following Traumatic Brain Injury, New JAMA Study Reports

By Michael Kaplen

A new study in the Journal of the Medical Association (JAMA) reports  that major depression is the most common and and disabling psychiatric injury following traumatic brain injury in all degrees of severity. 

The study further reports that despite the high incidence of major depression following brain trauma, this condition is often not treated resulting in a poor quality of life for survivors of brain injury.

The incidence of major depression among 559 people with traumatic brain injury was nearly eight times greater than would be expected in the general population, the researchers report in the May 19th issue of the JAMA/Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to a report in Reuters, While major depression during the first year was associated with a poorer quality of life and ability to function, "less than half of the people who were found to have major depression received any treatment during the first year,"  according to Dr. Jesse R. Fann from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle and one the study's principal investigators.

Noting that treatment for traumatic brain injury normally focuses on the injury and its effect on a person's ability to think clearly, Fann and colleagues wanted to clarify how often severe depression develops after a major traumatic brain injury and if it affects recovery.

Of the 1,080 brain injury patients admitted to one trauma center in Seattle between June 2001 and March 2005, 559 agreed to participate in the study and were followed for 12 months. Study participants were mostly men injured in automobile accidents.

The researchers report that more than half of the participants (about 53 percent) were diagnosed with major depression at some point in the first year after their brain injury - a rate that is about 8 times greater than would be expected.

Not counting those that were depressed at the time they were injured, 233 of the remaining 471 participants (49 percent) experienced "new" major depression.

For a variety of reasons, the investigators say the rates of major depression after traumatic brain injury are probably "conservative" and underestimate the problem.

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on May 18, 2010 (boomark / email).