A transdiagnostic investigation of emotional distress after traumatic brain injury

作者：Shields Cassandra^*; Ownsworth Tamara; O'Donovan Analise; Fleming Jennifer

来源：Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 2016, 26(3): 410-445.

DOI：10.1080/09602011.2015.1037772

• Traumatic brain injury
• Emotional distress
• Transdiagnostic perspective
• Emotional dysregulation

Emotional distress after traumatic brain injury (TBI) often presents as a range of neurobehavioural and emotional reactions rather than distinct disorders. This study adopted a transdiagnostic approach with the aim of identifying psychological processes common to depression, anxiety and global distress after TBI. Fifty participants with TBI (aged 19-66 years, 12-65 months post-injury) completed measures of threat appraisals and avoidance behaviour (Appraisal of Threat and Avoidance Questionnaire), self-discrepancy (Head Injury Semantic Differential Scale III), emotion dysregulation (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale), worry (Penn State Worry Questionnaire), negative self-focused attention (Self-Focus Sentence Completion) and emotional distress (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales and Brief Symptom Inventory). Significant correlations were found among the proposed transdiagnostic variables (rs=.29-.82, p<.05). A principal components analysis revealed two underlying factors: (1) Threats to Self, and (2) Emotion Dysregulation. Only the Emotion Dysregulation factor accounted for significant unique variance in levels of depression, anxiety and global distress (sr(2)=.12-.17). Such findings indicate the need for interventions to target difficulties in identifying and regulating emotions after TBI to facilitate emotional adjustment.

• 出版日期2016-5-3