The study consisted of a prospective investigation of 45 consecutively
admitted patients who had sustained a mild head injury. In all cases
the duration of post-traumatic amnesia was less than 24 hours. Head in
jury patients had an average of three adverse life events in the year
preceding injury compared with 1.5 for controls. Using the PSE, 39% of
the group were diagnosed psychiatric cases at six weeks after the inj
ury. For cases the mean level of chronic social difficulties (3.3) was
four times that for non-cases (0.8). Six months after injury, 28% of
the head injury group had three or more symptoms. These chronic cases
were on average ten years older than those whose symptoms had remitted
. Chronic cases had, on average, three social difficulties, twice as m
any as found among those whose symptoms had remitted. The emergence an
d persistence of the postconcussional syndrome are associated with soc
ial adversity before the accident. While young men are most at risk of
minor head injury, older women are most at risk of chronic sequelae.