Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2026
Assessing Changes in Synaptic Plasticity Using an Awake Closed-Head Injury Model of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Published on: January 20, 2023
Violence-related traumatic brain injury: a population-based study
Kenneth A Gerhart1, David C Mellick, Alan H Weintraub
1Craig Hospital, Rocky Mountain Regional Brain Injury Syste, Englewood, Colorado 80110, USA. kgerhart@craighospital.org
Background:
Most studies of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and violence are small, focus on one violent mechanism only, and are nonrepresentative. This large, population-based effort examines characteristics, circumstances of injury, treatment pathways, and outcomes of persons with TBI as a result of all types of violence, compares them with other TBI survivors, identifies a risk profile, and examines how a violent cause impacts later outcomes.
Methods:
This study involved medical record abstraction and telephone survey at 1 year postinjury of a weighted sample of 2,771 Coloradans hospitalized with TBI between January 1, 1996, and June 30, 1999.
Results:
People with violently incurred TBI are more likely to be young, male, members of minority groups, single, and premorbid alcohol abusers than other TBI survivors. At 1 year postinjury, they report less community integration and more headaches, confusion, and sensory and attentional disturbances. Predictors of these outcomes included age, gender, injury severity, and employment status.
Conclusion:
It appears that essentially the same factors that increase risk of sustaining a violent TBI negatively impact later outcomes as well.
