ABSTRACT
The most common psychiatric diagnoses following traumatic brain injury (TBI) are those associated with depression, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse. The rates of lifetime depression, panic disorder, and psychotic disorder following TBI are 26%, 8%, and 8%, respectively. The rates of current depression, current panic disorder, and current psychotic disorder following TBI are 10%, 6%, and 8%, respectively (McAllister et al. 2006). Depression is the commonest mood disorder following TBI, and it has been estimated to occur in approximately 25%–60% of individuals with TBI within 8 years of their injury (Jorge et al. 2004). Behavioral and psychiatric disturbances are even more frequent consequences of brain injury, generally more so than the cognitive disorders, and these are the major determinants of subsequent quality of life in patients following TBI (Jorge 2005). Mood disorders in patients following TBI are signicantly correlated to lower hippocampal volumes than those volumes found in patients who do not develop a mood disorder after TBI (Jorge et al. 2007). Anxiety is probably the second commonest psychiatric complaint following TBI, but it does not seem to have any distinguishing features that separate it from anxiety disorders occurring in a non-traumatic civilian injured person (McAllister et al. 2006).
