TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS - PSYCHIATRIC-DISORDERS AT ONE-YEAR

Factors predictive of psychiatric outcome in the second 6 months follo wing traumatic brain injury (TBI) in 43 children and adolescents were assessed prospectively. The outcome measure was the presence of a psyc hiatric disorder not present before the injury (''novel''). Out of six models tested, four were predictive of novel psychiatric disorder: pr einjury family function, family psychiatric history, socioeconomic cla ss/intellectual function, and behavior/adaptive function. Post hoc ana lyses suggested that preinjury family functioning measured by a struct ured interview was a significant predictive variable. Severity of inju ry, when reclassified as severe versus mild/moderate TBI, significantl y predicted novel psychiatric disorders. These data suggest that some children, identifiable through clinical assessment, are at increased r isk for psychiatric disorders following TBI.