use of a traumatic brain injury (tbi) screen in a veteran mental health population

Conditions: Traumatic Brain Injury

Summary: the primary aims of this study are to: 1) establish the concurrent criterion-related validity of four traumatic brain injury (tbi) screening questions (tbi-4) using the ohio state university tbi identification method (osu tbi-id) and 2) establish the concurrent criterion-related validity of the tbi-4 with the addition of detailed information elicited by the four questions. secondary aims include: 1) determining if the addition of detailed information elicited by the tbi-4 results in increased specificity; 2) determining whether the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (tbi) in this sample is concordant with previous research; and 3) determining whether psychiatric outcomes are worse for veterans with traumatic brain injury (tbi) than those with no traumatic brain injury(tbi).

the primary aims of this study are to: 1) establish the concurrent criterion-related validity of four traumatic brain injury (tbi) screening questions (tbi-4) using the ohio state university tbi identification method (osu tbi-id) and 2) establish the concurrent criterion-related validity of the tbi-4 with the addition of detailed information elicited by the four questions. secondary aims include: 1) determining if the addition of detailed information elicited by the tbi-4 results in increased specificity; 2) determining whether the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (tbi) in this sample is concordant with previous research; and 3) determining whether psychiatric outcomes are worse for veterans with traumatic brain injury (tbi) than those with no traumatic brain injury(tbi). primary hypotheses: hypothesis 1a: the sensitivity and specificity of the tbi-4 will be significantly greater than 0.75 and 0.80, respectively. hypothesis 1b: the sensitivity and specificity of the tbi-4 with the addition of detailed information elicited by these questions (i.e., free text information entered by the clinician who administered the tbi-4) will be significantly greater than 0.75 and 0.80, respectively. secondary hypotheses: hypothesis 1c: the specificity of the tbi-4 with the addition of detailed information elicited by these questions (i.e., free text information entered by the clinician who administered the tbi-4) will be significantly greater than that of the four questions alone. hypothesis 2: a significant difference in psychiatric outcomes (psychiatric hospitalizations, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and completions, and mental health-related contacts) will be identified in those with a history of tbi versus those without a history of tbi as determined, first, by the tbi-4 and, second, by the osu tbi-id. hypothesis 3: the prevalence of traumatic brain injury- loss of consciousness (tbi-loc) in this population will be similar to that identified by walker et al1 (31.7% of individuals will report 1 or more tbi-loc).

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * veteran must be at least 18 years of age. * veteran must have had a mental health intake no earlier than january of 2007. exclusion criteria: * failure to provide informed consent as evidenced by inability to respond to the above stated questions. * no mental health intake note in the medical record. * presence of a mental health intake note in the computer which does not contain the tbi-4

Keywords: traumatic brain injury veterans psychiatric disorders suicide