Does severity of spinal cord injury predict likelihood of suffering chronically from severe depression and anxiety?

Study Design: Qualitative Survey study.

Objective: One might assume that those with higher and more complete spinal cord injuries are at higher risk of depression and anxiety. The objective of this study was to assess the association between level and severity of injury with the degree of anxiety and depression in chronic spinal cord injury.

Setting: Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation outpatient clinic.

Methods: 49 subjects were recruited from our research database. Time from injury ranged from 6 months to 20+ years. Sample included 23 motor complete and 26 motor incomplete participants; of these 24 were people with paraplegia, 25 were people with tetraplegia. They answered HADS, BDI-FS and PHQ-9 questionnaires. Participants were grouped based on time post injury and then were further divided by motor complete (AIS A/B) and incomplete (AIS C/D) and level (tetraplegia cf. paraplegia). Two-sample t-tests were conducted to evaluate the differences in depression and anxiety scores, between individuals with different completeness and injury type.

Results: There were no significant differences amongst the groups tested regarding severity of depression and anxiety, however, those with paraplegia or incomplete injuries had higher but not significantly higher average scores for depression and anxiety.

Conclusion: We found there were no statistically significant differences in depression and anxiety scores among the groups. These results suggest that all people with SCI may be at similar risk of depression and anxiety, regardless of SCI severity and level.