Postconcussive complaints, anxiety, and depression related to vocational outcome in minor to severe traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the relation of postconcussive complaints, anxiety, and depression with vocational outcome in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) of various severities and to assess sex differences.

DESIGN

A prospective cross-sectional cohort study.

SETTING

Level I trauma center.

PARTICIPANTS

Adults (N=242) with TBI of various severity.

INTERVENTIONS

Not applicable.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale, return to work (RTW), Head Injury Symptom Checklist, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

RESULTS

In 67% of the patients, complaints were present; 22% were anxious, and 18% were depressed. The frequency of complaints increased significantly with injury severity, in contrast to anxiety and depression. Frequencies of patients with anxiety and depression (9% and 5%) were lower with complete RTW than with incomplete RTW (42% and 37%; P<.001). Patients with minor TBI with complaints were more anxious (50% vs 27%; P<.05) and depressed (46% vs 23%; P<.05) compared with patients with other severity categories and patients with incomplete RTW (67% vs 36% and 60% vs 30%, respectively). A higher percentage of women with minor TBI were depressed (45% vs 13%; P=.01) and had incomplete RTW (50% vs 18%; P<.05) compared with men. Multiple regression analysis showed that injury severity, complaints, anxiety, and depression were all predictive of RTW (explained variance 45%). In all severity categories, anxiety and depression were predictive of RTW, complaints, and sex only for minor TBI.

CONCLUSIONS

Anxiety and depression are related to vocational outcome after TBI, with a different profile in the minor TBI category, partly due to sex differences.