Psychiatric disorders in burn patients: A follow-up study

Background: We report on a prospective study of 45 patients with burn injur ies admitted to a major burn unit in the greater Athens area. The study aim ed to explore the prevalence of psychological and psychiatric disorders amo ng burn survivors. Methods:The sample comprised all consecutive cases of ad ult burn patients in a 6-month period. Personal interviews were conducted b y the administration of the Langner scale and the DSM-III-R Structured Clin ical Interview. Twelve months later, 30 patients of the baseline sample wer e reexamined. Results: Psychological impairment was found to be 45.5 and 40 % at the baseline and follow-up assessments, respectively. The extent of bu rns was found to be associated with psychological impairment. The prevalenc e of psychiatric disorders (any DSM-III nosological entity) reached 46.6% a t both baseline and follow-up examinations. Posttraumatic stress disorder w as diagnosed in 17.8 and 20.0% of burn survivors at the baseline and the 12 -month follow-up assessments, respectively. Logistic regression analysis re vealed that face disfigurement was the only burn characteristic significant ly associated with the presence of psychiatric morbidity, Conclusions: The results of the study suggest that the extent of burns is not so important w hen compared to the possibility of disfigurement from the point of risk of developing a psychiatric disorder. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.