Novel psychiatric disorders following mild traumatic brain injury: a retrospective multivariable analysis with screening recommendations.

OBJECTIVE: Concussions are a form of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) that most commonly occur after blunt trauma to the head and may result in temporary loss of consciousness. These patients are typically comanaged by neurocritical care specialists, neurologists, and neurosurgeons depending on the severity of disease. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) evaluate how patient demographic characteristics impact the development of novel psychiatric disorders (NPDs) after mTBI; and 2) develop screening recommendations to identify patients with NPDs. METHODS: The authors used data from the 2010-2019 National Readmissions Database of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. Patients who were readmitted for mTBI within a year of their first admission between 2010 and 2019 were identified (n = 206,070). The association between patient demographic characteristics and the emergence of NPDs after mTBI was examined using multivariable binomial regression analysis. Density plots were used to examine diagnostic patterns for NPDs. RESULTS: The mean ± SD age of all patients was 50.9 ± 26.2 years, and 43.9% of patients were female. Overall, an additional 818 (0.40%) patients were reported to have novel suicidal ideation (SI), 3866 (1.9%) novel depression, 3449 (1.7%) novel anxiety, and 88 (0.043%) novel homicidal ideation (HI) after mTBI. Younger age (OR 0.9775, 95% CI 0.9705-0.9848, p < 0.0001) and reduced Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score (OR 0.9155, 95% CI 0.8539-0.9774, p = 0.010) may predict novel SI, and female sex (OR 0.7464, 95% CI 0.6026-0.9214, p = 0.0069) may be inversely related to novel SI after mTBI. Also, multivariable analysis found that female sex (OR 1.1774, 95% CI 1.0654-1.3016, p = 0.0014) and Medicare/Medicaid insurance type (OR 0.9381, 95% CI 0.8983-0.9797, p = 0.0039) may predict novel anxiety after mTBI. Similarly, younger age (OR 0.9956, 95% CI 0.9923-0.9989, p = 0.0096), higher CCI score (OR 1.0363, 95% CI 1.0099-1.0629, p = 0.0062), and Medicare/Medicaid insurance type (OR 0.9386, 95% CI 0.8998-0.9789, p = 0.0032) may predict novel depression. Lastly, female sex (OR 0.3271, 95% CI 0.1467-0.6567, p = 0.0031) and increased median income (OR 0.8829, 95% CI 0.7930-0.9944, p = 0.049) were inversely proportional to novel HI after mTBI. The median time to diagnosis of NPD was 69.5 days for depression, 66.5 days for anxiety, 70.0 days for SI, and 66.5 days for HI. CONCLUSIONS: Numerous patient demographic factors are significant predictors of the development of NPDs after mTBI and concussion. Screening for NPDs within 3 weeks and 3 months after mTBI may identify most patients at risk for developing novel postconcussive psychiatric conditions, including anxiety, depression, HI, and SI. Further studies are warranted to understand how patient demographic characteristics should dictate medical management and screening after mTBI and concussion.

Demographic-Dependent Risk of Developing Severe Novel Psychiatric Disorders after Concussion.

Current guidelines for patients experiencing a concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) often focus on conservative care and observation. However, mTBI may increase the risk of severe novel psychiatric disorders (NPDs) within 180 days, and long-term management of mTBI should include psychiatric evaluation in patient populations. Retrospective cohort analysis was conducted using 8 years of the Nationwide Readmission Database. All individuals who were admitted for concussion and were readmitted within 180 days were queried. This cohort was then subdivided based on age, sex, and whether they experienced loss of consciousness (LOC) to control for demographic-dependent confounding. A binary decision tree provided recommendations for patients who may be at risk of developing severe NPDs. Analysis included 12,080 patients who experienced concussion. Males and females with LOC had higher rates of depression in all age quartiles within 180 days (p < 0.05). Young females with LOC had increased rates of suicidal ideation (p < 0.01), and those >25 years of age had increased rates of anxiety (p < 0.005). Adult males with LOC had increased rates of suicidal ideation (p < 0.002) and males >75 years of age had increased rates of anxiety at readmission (p < 0.05). Males without LOC had increased rates of depression (p < 0.005), with men in the second quartile also at higher risk of developing anxiety (p < 0.05). Females without LOC showed the fewest number of NPDs at readmission. Concussion may be associated with increased rates of NPDs in the first 6 months following discharge. We use these data to develop recommendations for psychiatric screening of patients with mTBI.

Hyperperfusion of Frontal White and Subcortical Gray Matter in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Our aim was to assess resting cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHODS: We acquired pulsed arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging data in 44 generally high-functioning participants with ASD simplex and 66 typically developing control subjects with comparable mean full-scale IQs. We compared rCBF values voxelwise across diagnostic groups and assessed correlations with symptom scores. We also assessed the moderating influences of participant age, sex, and IQ on our findings and the correlations of rCBF with N-acetylaspartate metabolite levels. RESULTS: We detected significantly higher rCBF values throughout frontal white matter and subcortical gray matter in participants with ASD. rCBF correlated positively with socialization deficits in participants with ASD in regions where hyperperfusion was greatest. rCBF declined with increasing IQ in the typically developing group, a correlation that was absent in participants with ASD, whose rCBF values were elevated across all IQ levels. rCBF in the ASD group correlated inversely with N-acetylaspartate metabolite levels throughout the frontal white matter, with greater rCBF accompanying lower and increasingly abnormal N-acetylaspartate levels relative to those of typically developing control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: These findings taken together suggest the presence of altered metabolism, likely of mitochondrial origin, and dysfunctional maintenance processes that support axonal functioning in ASD. These disturbances in turn likely reduce neural efficiency for cognitive and social functioning and trigger compensatory responses from supporting glial cells, which subsequently increase rCBF to affected white matter. These findings, if confirmed, suggest cellular and molecular targets for novel therapeutics that address axonal pathology and bolster glial compensatory responses in ASD.