Anxiety Disorders in Adults With Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury: Evidence of Difficulties More Than 10 Years Postinjury.

Objective: To explore long-term psychiatric outcomes in individuals with a history of childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI) or orthopedic injury (OI).

Setting: Hospital emergency department, medical admission records and outpatient settings.

Participants: There were 95 males (M = 22.78 years, SD = 3.44 years) and 74 females (M = 22.27 years, SD = 3.09 years), 65 with mild TBI (M = 23.25 years, SD = 3.58 years), 61 with moderate-severe TBI (M = 22.34 years, SD = 2.79 years), and 43 with OI (M = 21.81 years, SD = 3.36 years).

Design: Longitudinal, between-subjects, cross-sectional design using retrospective and current data.

Main Measures: Semistructured interview to obtain psychiatric diagnoses and background information, and medical records for identification of TBI.

Results: Group with moderate-severe TBI presented with significantly higher rates of any anxiety disorder (χ2 = 6.81, P = .03) and comorbid anxiety disorder (χ2 = 6.12, P < .05). Group with overall TBI presented with significantly higher rates of any anxiety disorder (χ1 = 5.36, P = .02), panic attacks (χ1 = 4.43, P = .04), specific phobias (χ1 = 4.17, P = .04), and depression (χ1 = 3.98, P < .05). Prediction analysis revealed a statistically significant model (χ7 = 41.84, P < .001) explaining 23% to 37% of the variance in having any anxiety disorder, with significant predictors being group (TBI) and gender (female).

Conclusions: Children who have sustained a TBI may be vulnerable to persistent anxiety, panic attacks, specific phobias, and depression, even 13 years after the injury event.