Anxiety symptoms/disorders following Pediatric CHI
(10-27-03)

Risk factors for development of psychiatric disorders following CHI (Vasa et al., 2003)

Injury severity

Brown et al. (1981) reported increase in new psychiatric disorders in children as 62% after severe CHI and 20% after mild CHI

Premorbid psychiatric morbidity

Brown et al. (1981) found in group with severe CHI, children with preinjury emotional or behavioral problems had almost twice as great of risk of showing postinjury psychiatric disorder (55% vs. 29%)

Psychosocial adversity

Brown et al. (1981): 60% of children with higher psychosocial adversity showed postinjury psychiatric disorder, vs. 14% of children with lower psychosocial adversity

Anxiety symptoms: Vasa and colleagues (2003) found in prospective study of children with severe CHI that at one year follow-up there were at risk for a variety of anxiety symptoms, and possibly Overanxious Disorder. In general the risk factors for anxiety symptoms are the same as the risk factors for any psychiatric disorder (unique findings of this study were interpreted largely as due to limited range of variables--all cases were severe CHI)

PTSD following CHI in Children

Gerring et al. (2002) in prospective study of 95 children with severe CHI with amnesia found 13% developed PTSD within a year of trauma

Self-reported anxiety and depression, female gender, high psychosocial adversity, greater injury severity, and nonanxiety psychiatric disorders rated early after the injury were risk factors for PTSD and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms--risk factors were consistent with predictors of PTSD and PTSS that develop following non-head injury trauma