Citation

Brickell TA, Lippa S, French LM, Kennedy J, Bailie J, Lange RT. J. Neurotrauma 2016; 34(2): 300-312.

Affiliation

Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Bethesda, United States ; rael.lange@gmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2016.4403

PMID

27368356

Abstract

Females are often excluded from military-related mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) research due to their relatively low prevalence in this population. The purpose of this study was to focus on outcome from mild TBI in female service members, compared to males. Participants were 172 U.S. military service members selected from a larger sample that had sustained a mild TBI, and were evaluated within 24 months of injury (Age: M=28.9, SD=8.1) at one of six military medical centers. Eighty six women were matched to 86 men on nine key variables: TBI severity, mechanism of injury, bodily injury severity, days post-injury, age, number of deployments, theater where wounded, branch of service, and rank. Participants completed the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI) and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-C). There were no meaningful gender differences across all demographic and injury-related variables (p>.05). There were significant group differences and medium effect sizes for the NSI total score and all four NSI cluster scores. Symptoms most affected related to nausea, sensitivity to light, change in taste/smell, change in appetite, fatigue, and poor sleep. There were significant group differences and small-medium effect sizes for the PCL-C total score and two of the three PCL-C cluster scores. Symptoms most affected related to poor concentration, trouble remembering a stressful event, and disturbing memories/thoughts/images. Females consistently endorsed more symptoms than males. As females become more active in combat related deployments, it is critical that future studies place more emphasis on this important military population.

Language: en