Mental Health and Family Functioning in Patients and Their Family Members after Traumatic Brain Injury: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Mari Rasmussen,Nada Andelic,Juan Arango-Lasprilla,Helene Soberg,Tonje Nordenmark

doi:10.3390/brainsci10100670

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects the family as a whole. This study aimed to describe and compare mental health and family functioning in TBI patients and their family members, and to identify individual and family-related factors that were associated with mental health. It was conducted at an urban, specialized, TBI outpatient clinic and included 61 patients with mild to severe TBI and 63 family members. Baseline demographics and injury-related data were collected, and the participants answered standardized, self-reported questionnaires 6–18 months post-injury that assessed mental health; general health; family functioning, communication, and satisfaction; depression and anxiety; self-efficacy; resilience; and condition-specific quality of life. The patients reported significantly worse mental health, depression, resilience, self-efficacy, and general health compared with the family members. Patients and family members had similar perceptions, showing balanced family functioning, high family communication levels, and moderate family satisfaction. Factors significantly associated with mental health in patients and family members were depression, anxiety, and resilience, explaining 56% of the variance (p < 0.001). Family-related factors were not associated with mental health. The disease burden was mainly on the patients; however, the family members also reported emotional distress. Family-targeted interventions across the TBI continuum should be considered.

Highlights

The consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI) are multifaceted and affect the patients’ family as well [1,2]
Six families families withdrew after the randomization for the following reasons: two families moved away, two families withdrew after the randomization for the following reasons: two families moved away, two thought would be too timebe consuming, and two families provide a specific reason, families participating thought participating would too time consuming, and did twonot families did not provide a leaving a total of participants at baseline
This study demonstrated that Traumatic brain injury (TBI), regardless of injury severity level, has lasting consequences on overall mental health and emotional functioning for the patients, and to some extent for the family members

Summary

Introduction

The consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI) are multifaceted and affect the patients’ family as well [1,2]. Persistent physical, cognitive, and emotional problems have been identified in individuals with TBI of all severities [3]. Brain Sci. 2020, 10, 670 across both the mental and physical domains [5], and HRQL is as an important outcome in populations with TBI of all severity levels [6]. The changes in lifestyle and responsibilities of the family members are challenging, and an increased caregiver burden [8,9,10], diminished HRQL [11,12], and increased levels of emotional distress [13,14] are negative outcomes for the caregivers

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