Psychiatric complications of burned adults: a classification

The psychiatric complications occurring in a group of adult burn patients were correlated with pertinent data in the literature and a classification constructed, based on the three stages of the acute grief response to injury: psychiatric complications occur when the process of mourning is arrested in a regressive episode. Thirty-five adult patients with burns of greater than 7% body surface area were studied. It was found that Body Surface Area burned, the presence of a Premorbid Psychiatric Diagnosis, and Age are all significantly correlated with the occurrence of psychiatric complications following burn injuries and account for 61% of the variance in the sample. The implications of these findings and possibilities for further research are discussed.