Psychiatric sequelae of minor head injury. A prospective follow-up study

Summary Psychiatric morbidity was measured in a prospective follow-up study of 51 patients admitted to hospital after minor head injury. By means of self report questionnaires ( eg General Health Questionnaire (SHQ) and Impact of Event Scale), semistructured interviews and symptom-checklists, it was found that nearly half of the patients suffered considerable discomfort after 1 week. Improvement during the 3 months follow-up was generally poor. Both concussional symptoms and stress response contributed to the compromised well-being as measured by the GHQ, but outcome did not correlate to severity of injury. The GHQ-60 score of 1 week showed a strong positive correlation with outcome after 3 months. The incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder was low.