1024 - Presence of depression is associated with lower satisfaction with life within the first 6 months after a traumatic brain injury

Individuals sustaining a TBI experience motor, cognitive, mood and communication difficulties. Depression is a prevalent mood disorder in this population. Motor and cognitive impairments also result in less satisfaction with life (SWL), due to altered appraisals of situation relative to expectations in those with TBI. Presence of decreased SWL and depression results in poor rehabilitation outcomes. The association between SWL and depression has received less attention. The study objective was to identify whether and to what extent depression and SWL are associated over the first 6-months post-TBI.

Design:

We conducted a retrospective analysis of data submitted to the Federal Interagency TBI Research informatics center. We used SWL and depression (assessed using Satisfaction with Life Scale; SWLS and Patient Health Questionnaire; PHQ-9 respectively) scores from TRACK-TBI – Adult study data at 2-weeks, 3- and 6-months post-TBI. We dichotomized SWLS (≤20:less satisfied, ≥21:satisfied) and PHQ-9 (≤9:no depression, ≥10:depressive symptoms) scores, based upon guidelines. Chi-Squared tests compared the proportion of satisfied and less satisfied individuals between the two depression groups. Logistic Regression analyses estimated the odds of being less satisfied in the presence of having depression. Significance was set at p< 0.05.

Results:

Data were available from 3733 participants (2-weeks:1935, 3-months:1243, 6-months:555). The proportion of individuals with depression was 30.2% at 2-weeks, 18.4% at 3- months and 21.4% at 6-months. A greater proportion of those with depression had lower SWLS scores (p< 0.01) at all three assessments: 2-weeks (57.4%,n=335,χ²=239.1); 3-months (75.1%,n=172,χ²=301.2) and 6-months (73.9%,n=88,χ²=141.8). Logistic regression analyses revealed that those with depression were 4.9, 13.9 and 13.24 times more likely (all p< 0.01) to have lower satisfaction at the 3 assessment periods respectively.

Conclusions:

Individuals with depression post-TBI are more likely to have lower SWL as well. It is essential to assess SWL along with levels of depression to completely understand the effects of TBI.