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Published on: January 20, 2023
Traumatic brain injury rates and sequelae: a comparison of prisoners with a matched community sample in Australia
Iain Perkes1, Peter W Schofield, Tony Butler
1School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia.
Aim:
To compare rates of past reported traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a prisoner sample with those in a control group drawn from the same location of usual residence.
Method:
The prisoner group comprised a consecutive sample of men (n = 200) received into custody and screened by face-to-face interview. The control group comprised men (n = 200) matched for location of usual residence screened by telephone interview. Participants were asked about past TBIs and screened for drug and alcohol abuse, impulsivity and dissocial personality disorder.
Results:
Eighty-two per cent of prisoners and 71.5% of community participants reported at least one past TBI of any severity (i.e. with or without a loss of consciousness (LOC)) and 64.5% of prisoners and 32.2% of community participants reported at least one TBI associated with a LOC. Prisoners were more likely to report persisting side-effects of TBI and were much more likely to screen positive for impulsivity and dissocial personality disorder. Multivariate analyses found no significant association between TBI frequency or severity and custody/community group membership.
Conclusions:
High reported rates of TBI in prisoner populations may reflect the excess of socio-demographic risk factors for TBI. Results of the current study do not support a role for TBI as causally related to criminal conduct.
