Affective symptoms in the chronic stage of traumatic brain injury: a study of married couples

A convenient sample of 60 brain-injured subjects and their spouses was evaluated cross-sectionally in the chronic stage of recovery on self-rated measures of sensory, motor, cognitive and behavioural disability and on the SCL-90-R depression and anxiety subscales. A majority of the brain-injured subjects, who were on average almost 6 years post-injury, demonstrated elevations on the affective symptom scales, with almost 70% showing depression and 50% showing anxiety. The spouses of the brain-injured individuals also demonstrated significantly elevated affective symptom scales, with 73% acknowledging symptoms of depression and 55% demonstrating symptoms of anxiety. For the individuals with brain injury, those with higher self-ratings of cognitive disability and social aggression had higher self-ratings of depression and anxiety. In contrast, spouse gender appeared to have the greatest association with the presence of elevation affective responses, with female spouses having higher levels of depression and anxiety than male spouses. These findings are discussed in terms of the reactionary nature of affective disturbances in the chronic stage of recovery.