TY - JOUR PY - 2010// TI - Mild traumatic brain injury and fatigue: A prospective longitudinal study JO - Brain injury A1 - Norrie, Joan A1 - Heitger, Marcus H. A1 - Leathem, Janet A1 - Anderson, Tim A1 - Jones, Richard A1 - Flett, Ross SP - 1528 EP - 1538 VL - 24 IS - 13-14 N2 - Primary objective: To examine fatigue prevalence, severity, predictors and co-variates over 6 months post-mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). Research design: Longitudinal prospective study including 263 adults with MTBI. Procedures: Participants completed the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Rivermead Post-concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPSQ), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Short Form 36 Health Survey-Version 2 (SF-36v2). Complete data were available for 159 participants. Key measures; prevalence-RPSQ Item 6: severity-FSS. The effect of time on fatigue prevalence and severity was examined using ANOVA. Multiple regression analysis identified statistically significant covariates. Main outcomes and results: Post-MTBI fatigue prevalence was 68%, 38% and 34% at 1 week, 3 and 6 months, respectively. There was a strong effect for time over the first 3 months and moderate-to-high correlations between fatigue prevalence and severity. Early fatigue strongly predicted later fatigue; depression, but not anxiety was a predictor. Fatigue was seen as laziness by family or friends in 30% of cases. Conclusions: Post-MTBI fatigue is a persistent post-concussion symptom, exacerbated by depression but not anxiety. It diminishes in the first 3 months and then becomes relatively stable, suggesting the optimum intervention placement is at 3 months or more post-MTBI.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0269-9052 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/02699052.2010.531687 ID - ref1 ER -