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Psychological Predictors of Mental Health Difficulties After Pediatric Concussion

Alice Gornall1,2, Michael Takagi1,2,3, Cathriona Clarke1

  • 1Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Journal of Neurotrauma
|April 25, 2024
PubMed

Insights

Pre-injury factors like higher symptom ratings and lower resilience predict mental health issues in children post-concussion. These findings highlight the importance of considering a child's history when assessing concussion recovery.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric neurology
  • Child and adolescent psychiatry
  • Neuropsychology

Background:

  • Mental health difficulties are common in children after concussion, but predictors remain unclear.
  • Understanding pre-injury factors is crucial for managing pediatric concussion outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate psychological predictors of mental health difficulties following pediatric concussion.
  • To examine the role of pre-injury factors in acute and post-acute mental health outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal prospective cohort study of 115 children (5 to <18 years) with concussion.
  • Assessed internalizing, externalizing, and total mental health problems using the Child Behavior Checklist.
  • Evaluated predictors including premorbid symptoms (PCSI), psychiatric history, perfectionism, and resilience.

Main Results:

  • Higher premorbid symptom ratings (PCSI) predicted acute and post-acute mental health difficulties.
  • Pre-injury factors like learning difficulties, psychiatric history, lower resilience, and older age were associated with worse outcomes.
  • Pre-injury factors explained 23.4-39.9% of acute and 32.3-37.8% of post-acute mental health outcomes.

Conclusions:

  • Several pre-injury demographic and psychological factors predict mental health difficulties after pediatric concussion.
  • Findings underscore the need for comprehensive assessment of pre-injury history in concussion management.
  • Further validation in larger, multi-site studies is recommended.

Keywords:
concussion recoverymental wellbeingmild traumatic brain injurypost-concussion symptoms

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