Cognitive functions and symptoms predicting later use of psychiatric services following mild traumatic brain injury in school-age.

Objective: To investigate whether neuropsychological test performance or presence of some specific injury symptoms at 1-3 months following pediatric mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can help to identify the children at risk for developing post-traumatic psychiatric symptoms.

Methods: Data from 120 children and adolescents aged 7-15 years, treated at Turku University Hospital between 2010 and 2016 due to mTBI, and who had undergone neuropsychological evaluation at 1-3 months following injury, were enrolled from the hospital records. Neuropsychological test performancesand injury symptom reports were retrospectively retrieved from the patient files.