Impact of depression and post-traumatic stress on manual and oculomotor performance in service members with a history of mild TBI.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the impact of depression and post-traumatic stress on an automated oculomotor and manual measure of visual attention, compared to conventional neuropsychological assessment. Setting: Military traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation program.

PARTICIPANTS

188 Active Duty Service Members (ADSM) with a history of mild TBI.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional and correlational study with data obtained through an IRB-approved data registry study. Main measures: Bethesda Eye & Attention Measure (BEAM); brief neuropsychological battery; self-reported symptom surveys including Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI), Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8), and PTSD Checklist-5 (PCL-5).

RESULTS

Small effect sizes were found for partial correlations between both depression and post-traumatic stress and key BEAM metrics. In contrast, small-to-medium effects sizes were found across all traditional neuropsychological test measures.

CONCLUSION

This study illustrates the profile of impairments associated with depression and post-traumatic stress on saccadic eye movements and manual responses to BEAM relative to conventional neuropsychological tests. Results demonstrated that among ADSM seen for mTBI, depression and PTS exert a significant negative impact on measures of processing speed, attention, executive function, and memory across saccadic, manual, and conventional neuropsychological tests. However, the unique psychometric features of each of these assessment approaches may assist in distinguishing the effects of psychiatric comorbidities within this population.