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Post-Traumatic Stress as a Psychological Effect of Mild Head Injuries in Children

Background: Head trauma is one of the most common pediatric emergencies. While the psychological effects of severe head injuries are well studied, the psychological consequences of mild head injuries often go overlooked. Head injuries with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 13–15, with symptoms such as h...

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Autores principales: Sinopidis, Xenophon, Kallianezos, Panagiotis, Petropoulos, Constantinos, Gkentzi, Despoina, Kostopoulou, Eirini, Fouzas, Sotirios, Dassios, Theodore, Vervenioti, Aggeliki, Karatza, Ageliki, Roupakias, Stylianos, Panagidis, Antonios, Blevrakis, Evangelos, Jelastopulu, Eleni
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10378063/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37508613
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children10071115
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author Sinopidis, Xenophon
Kallianezos, Panagiotis
Petropoulos, Constantinos
Gkentzi, Despoina
Kostopoulou, Eirini
Fouzas, Sotirios
Dassios, Theodore
Vervenioti, Aggeliki
Karatza, Ageliki
Roupakias, Stylianos
Panagidis, Antonios
Blevrakis, Evangelos
Jelastopulu, Eleni
author_facet Sinopidis, Xenophon
Kallianezos, Panagiotis
Petropoulos, Constantinos
Gkentzi, Despoina
Kostopoulou, Eirini
Fouzas, Sotirios
Dassios, Theodore
Vervenioti, Aggeliki
Karatza, Ageliki
Roupakias, Stylianos
Panagidis, Antonios
Blevrakis, Evangelos
Jelastopulu, Eleni
author_sort Sinopidis, Xenophon
collection PubMed
description Background: Head trauma is one of the most common pediatric emergencies. While the psychological effects of severe head injuries are well studied, the psychological consequences of mild head injuries often go overlooked. Head injuries with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 13–15, with symptoms such as headache, vomiting, brief loss of consciousness, transient amnesia, and absence of focal neurological signs, are defined as mild. The aim of this study is to evaluate the stress of children with mild head injuries and their parents’ relevant perception during the early post-traumatic period. Methods: This is a prospective cross-sectional study on a cohort of children with mild head injuries and their parents. Two questionnaires were implemented, the Child Trauma Screening Questionnaire (CTSQ) which was compiled by the children, and the Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-13), compiled by their parents. Both questionnaires are widely used and reliable. The first presents an excellent predictive ability in children with a risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, while the second is a weighted self-completed detecting instrument for the measurement of post-traumatic stress in children and adolescents, with a detailed evaluation of their reactions to the traumatic incident. The participants responded one week and one month after the traumatic event. Results: A total of 175 children aged 6–14 years and 174 parents participated in the study. Stress was diagnosed in 33.7% of children after one week, and in 9.9% after one month. Parental responses suggesting stress presence in their children were 19.0% and 3.9%, respectively. These outcomes showed that mild head injuries are not so innocent. They are often underestimated by their parents and may generate a psychological burden to the children during the early post-traumatic period. Conclusions: Mild head injuries may affect the emotional welfare of children. Healthcare providers should understand the importance of the psychological effect of this overlooked type of injury. They should be trained in the psychological effect of trauma and be aware of this probability, promptly notify the parents accordingly, and provide psychological assistance beyond medical treatment. Follow-up and support are needed to avoid the possibility of future post-traumatic stress disorder. More extensive research is needed as the outcomes of this study regarded a limited population in numbers, age, and survey period. Furthermore, many children with mild head injuries do not ever visit the emergency department and stay at home unrecorded. Community-based research on the topic should therefore be considered.
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spelling pubmed-103780632023-07-29 Post-Traumatic Stress as a Psychological Effect of Mild Head Injuries in Children Sinopidis, Xenophon Kallianezos, Panagiotis Petropoulos, Constantinos Gkentzi, Despoina Kostopoulou, Eirini Fouzas, Sotirios Dassios, Theodore Vervenioti, Aggeliki Karatza, Ageliki Roupakias, Stylianos Panagidis, Antonios Blevrakis, Evangelos Jelastopulu, Eleni Children (Basel) Article Background: Head trauma is one of the most common pediatric emergencies. While the psychological effects of severe head injuries are well studied, the psychological consequences of mild head injuries often go overlooked. Head injuries with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 13–15, with symptoms such as headache, vomiting, brief loss of consciousness, transient amnesia, and absence of focal neurological signs, are defined as mild. The aim of this study is to evaluate the stress of children with mild head injuries and their parents’ relevant perception during the early post-traumatic period. Methods: This is a prospective cross-sectional study on a cohort of children with mild head injuries and their parents. Two questionnaires were implemented, the Child Trauma Screening Questionnaire (CTSQ) which was compiled by the children, and the Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-13), compiled by their parents. Both questionnaires are widely used and reliable. The first presents an excellent predictive ability in children with a risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, while the second is a weighted self-completed detecting instrument for the measurement of post-traumatic stress in children and adolescents, with a detailed evaluation of their reactions to the traumatic incident. The participants responded one week and one month after the traumatic event. Results: A total of 175 children aged 6–14 years and 174 parents participated in the study. Stress was diagnosed in 33.7% of children after one week, and in 9.9% after one month. Parental responses suggesting stress presence in their children were 19.0% and 3.9%, respectively. These outcomes showed that mild head injuries are not so innocent. They are often underestimated by their parents and may generate a psychological burden to the children during the early post-traumatic period. Conclusions: Mild head injuries may affect the emotional welfare of children. Healthcare providers should understand the importance of the psychological effect of this overlooked type of injury. They should be trained in the psychological effect of trauma and be aware of this probability, promptly notify the parents accordingly, and provide psychological assistance beyond medical treatment. Follow-up and support are needed to avoid the possibility of future post-traumatic stress disorder. More extensive research is needed as the outcomes of this study regarded a limited population in numbers, age, and survey period. Furthermore, many children with mild head injuries do not ever visit the emergency department and stay at home unrecorded. Community-based research on the topic should therefore be considered. MDPI 2023-06-27 /pmc/articles/PMC10378063/ /pubmed/37508613 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children10071115 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sinopidis, Xenophon
Kallianezos, Panagiotis
Petropoulos, Constantinos
Gkentzi, Despoina
Kostopoulou, Eirini
Fouzas, Sotirios
Dassios, Theodore
Vervenioti, Aggeliki
Karatza, Ageliki
Roupakias, Stylianos
Panagidis, Antonios
Blevrakis, Evangelos
Jelastopulu, Eleni
Post-Traumatic Stress as a Psychological Effect of Mild Head Injuries in Children
title Post-Traumatic Stress as a Psychological Effect of Mild Head Injuries in Children
title_full Post-Traumatic Stress as a Psychological Effect of Mild Head Injuries in Children
title_fullStr Post-Traumatic Stress as a Psychological Effect of Mild Head Injuries in Children
title_full_unstemmed Post-Traumatic Stress as a Psychological Effect of Mild Head Injuries in Children
title_short Post-Traumatic Stress as a Psychological Effect of Mild Head Injuries in Children
title_sort post-traumatic stress as a psychological effect of mild head injuries in children
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10378063/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37508613
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children10071115
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