title: Changes in personality after mild traumatic brain injury from primary blast vs. blunt forces.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Injuries from explosive devices can cause blast-force injuries, including mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated changes in personality from blast-force mTBI in comparison to blunt-force mTBI.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinicians and significant others assessed US veterans who sustained pure blast-force mTBI (n = 12), as compared to those who sustained pure blunt-force mTBI (n = 12). Inclusion criteria included absence of any mixed blast-blunt trauma and absence of post-traumatic stress disorder. Measures included the Interpersonal Measure of Psychopathy (IM-P), the Big Five Inventory (BFI), the Interpersonal Adjectives Scale (IAS) and the Frontal Systems Behaviour Scale (FrSBe).
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no group differences on demographic or TBI-related variables. Compared to the Blunt Group, the Blast Group had more psychopathy on the IM-P, with anger, frustration, toughness and boundary violations and tended to more neuroticism on the BFI. When pre-TBI and post-TBI assessments were compared on the IAS and FrSBe, only the patients with blast force mTBI had become more cold-hearted, aloof-introverted and apathetic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that blast forces alone can cause negativistic behavioural changes when evaluated with selected measures of personality. Further research on isolated blast-force mTBI should focus on these personality changes and their relationship to blast over-pressure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, USA. mmendez@UCLA.edu
authors.forename: Mario F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Mendez
authors.forename: Emily M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Owens
authors.forename: Elvira E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Jimenez
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Peppers
authors.forename: Eliot A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Licht
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D055826:Afghan Campaign 2001-; D000374:Aggression; D001753:Blast Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D054542:Iraq War, 2003-2011; D007508:Irritable Mood; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D011788:Quality of Life; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014481:United States; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology