Traumatic Brain Injury in Children and Adolescents

Factors predictive of psychiatric outcome in the second 6 months following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in 43 children and adolescents were assessed prospectively. The outcome measure was the presence of a psychiatric disorder not present before the injury ("novel"). Out of six models tested, four were predictive of novel psychiatric disorder: preinjury family function, family psychiatric history, socioeconomic class/intellectual function, and behavior/adaptive function. Post hoc analyses suggested that preinjury family functioning measured by a structured interview was a significant predictive variable. Severity of injury, when reclassified as severe versus mild/moderate TBI, significantly predicted novel psychiatric disorders. These data suggest that some children, identifiable through clinical assessment, are at increased risk for psychiatric disorders following TBI.