title: Psychiatric morbidity predicts perceived burn-specific health 1 year after a burn.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Individual factors such as gender, age, coping and personality traits and injury-related factors such as injury severity have been implicated as risk factors for poor perceived health after burns. As psychiatric morbidity is common in individuals who sustain burns, the aim of this study was to examine the effect of preinjury psychiatric problems on perceived health after injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 85 consecutive patients treated at a national burn center were prospectively assessed: the patients were interviewed during acute care with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders. One year after injury, perceived health was assessed with the Burn-Specific Health Scale-Brief (BSHS-B). Multiple regression analyses were used to evaluate the predictive effect of preinjury psychiatric history on perceived postinjury health.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Psychiatric morbidity, especially mood disorders, affected outcome for six of the nine BSHS-B subscales, with the covariates mainly being the length of hospital stay and total burn size.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results show that a history of preinjury psychiatric disorders, especially during the year before the burn, affects perceived outcome regarding both physical and psychological aspects of health 1 year after injury and that it is a risk factor for worse perceived outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Sciences, Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery, Burn Center, Uppsala University Hospital, 75185 Uppsala, Sweden. aili.low@surgsci.uu.se
authors.forename: Aili J F
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Low
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dyster-Aas
authors.forename: Mimmie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Willebrand
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ekselius
authors.forename: Bengt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gerdin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002056:Burns / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013548:Sweden; D055815:Young Adult