title: Post-traumatic and emotional symptoms in different subgroups of patients with mild head injury.
abstract: Post-concussional symptoms, such as headache, dizziness and irritability, are thought to result from the emotional stress associated with decreased cognitive performance after a head injury. A questionnaire-based investigation was carried out in 71 patients with mild head injury (MHI), using a heterogeneous item pool in order to study the interrelationships between traditional post-concussive complaints, cognitive problems, and more emotional and functional complaints. Factor analysis indicated that post-concussive symptoms loaded together with items on problems associated with decreased work performance and fatigability on a first factor, whereas psychovegetative and emotional complaints loaded together on a second factor. Two rating scales were constructed from the relevant items and were used to compare between subgroups of MHI patients and non-concussed controls. Patients with uncomplicated MHI had significantly higher scores than non-concussed subjects on the post-concussive-cognitive scale, but not on the emotional-vegetative scale. Patients with multiple head injuries or pre-existing emotional problems had higher scores on both the post-concussive-cognitive scale and the emotional-vegetative scale than MHI patients without a history of emotional problems. Reliable rating scales may be useful in multidiagnostic studies of MHI patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychology and Psychobiology, University of Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bohnen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Twijnstra
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jolles
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001924:Brain Concussion / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*