J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1991; 3:150-156
Copyright © 1991 by American Neuropsychiatric Association
Comparison of patients with and without emotional/behavioral deterioration during the first year after traumatic brain injury
TW Dunlop, GB Udvarhelyi, AF Stedem, JM O'Connor, ML Isaacs, JG Puig and JH Mather
Office of Medical Evaluation, Social Security Administration, Baltimore, MD 21241.
The records of 34 patients who showed evidence of emotional deterioration 6
months or more following traumatic brain injury were compared with a group
of patients matched for severity of initial neuropsychiatric impairment who
did not show deterioration. The deterioration group was more likely to have
been involved in assaults and less likely to have been involved in a motor
vehicle accident than the improvement group. The deterioration group was
also more likely to have a prior history of alcohol abuse and to have
sustained a skull fracture with left parietal lobe injury than the
improvement group. Agitation, hostility, apathy, lability of mood,
emotional withdrawal, and depression were the symptoms most likely to
worsen over time. This deterioration may have been due to premorbid
personality characteristics or to the nature of long-term neuronal response
to injury.
