June is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Month. A person can develop PTSD after experiencing or witnessing a frightening or dangerous event, including life-changing injuries such as spinal cord injury (SCI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). People with these injuries can experience PTSD at any time in their recovery. They may experience flashbacks or nightmares of what caused their injuries, avoid the things that remind them of the traumatic event, and experience mood changes, difficulty concentrating, or irritability, among other symptoms. For people with SCI or TBI, PTSD can impact rehabilitation and return to full participation in the community.
Several NIDILRR-funded projects are currently exploring the experience of PTSD following SCI and TBI, with the goal of understanding its causes and giving people with these injuries and their caregivers the tools to manage it in daily life.
Baylor Scott and White Spinal Cord Injury Model System tests the efficacy of brief prolonged exposure therapy (Brief PE) to prevent PTSD in people with SCI. Brief PE includes education about common reactions to trauma, breathing retraining, exposure to trauma memories and to situations that participants are avoiding due to trauma-related fear, and discussion of thoughts and feelings related to exposure exercises.
North Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Model System explores trajectories of PTSD and how it may be connected to autonomic nervous system dysfunction in the first year after TBI.
The Rocky Mountain Regional Brain Injury System (RMRBIS) evaluates psychosocial adjustment and post-traumatic growth after TBI, with the goal of developing methods to evaluate quality of life through the evaluation of psychosocial adjustment and recovery
Trajectories of PTSD Symptoms Following a Traumatic Brain Injury project examines the trajectories of PTSD symptoms to improve the health and function of individuals who have experienced traumatic brain injury (TBI). The result provides an evidence base to inform the development of interventions for PTSD by better understanding symptom progression, timing, and prevalence rates following a TBI.
The Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC) offers research-based information resources for people with SCI, TBI, and burn injuries and their caregivers, including these factsheets on PTSD:
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)
- Changes in Emotion After Traumatic Brain Injury
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Psychological Distress After Burn Injury
If you are in need of information about PTSD or resources in your community, please reach out to our information specialists by phone, email, or chat.