Abstract
After brain injury people often suffer from various symptoms that impact daily functioning. Specifically for mild traumatic brain injury, these symptoms are known as persistent post-concussion symptoms (PCS). It is still unknown why the extent, duration and impact of these symptoms vary highly across individuals. We showed that a combination of biological (e.g. injury severity), personal (e.g., age), and psychosocial (e.g., anxiety) variables, also known as a biopsychosocial approach, improves our understanding of prolonged recovery after brain injury. Moreover, we showed for the first time that the PCS-related fear-avoidance model, which emphasizes the role of anxiety and thoughts about symptoms, further improves our understanding of PCS-related disability. This model states we should not avoid the mental challenges PCS pose, but confront these challenges by thinking beyond diagnosis: ask about thoughts about symptoms and take these into account when helping patients with brain injury struggling with life’s curveballs.
Original language | English |
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Award date | 5 Jul 2021 |
Place of Publication | Maastricht |
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Print ISBNs | 9789464233162 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2021 |
Keywords
- fear-avoidance model
- biopsychosocial approach
- brain injury
- chronic phase
- persistent symptoms
- chronic disability