Use of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Screen in a Veteran Mental Health Population

VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System

Status: Completed

Conditions: Traumatic Brain Injury

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT01118182

COMIRB08-0001

Details and patient eligibility

About

The primary aims of this study are to: 1) Establish the concurrent criterion-related validity of four traumatic brain injury (TBI) screening questions (TBI-4) using the Ohio State University TBI Identification Method (OSU TBI-ID) and 2) Establish the concurrent criterion-related validity of the TBI-4 with the addition of detailed information elicited by the four questions. Secondary aims include: 1) Determining if the addition of detailed information elicited by the TBI-4 results in increased specificity; 2) Determining whether the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in this sample is concordant with previous research; and 3) Determining whether psychiatric outcomes are worse for veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) than those with no traumatic brain injury(TBI).

Full description

The primary aims of this study are to: 1) Establish the concurrent criterion-related validity of four traumatic brain injury (TBI) screening questions (TBI-4) using the Ohio State University TBI Identification Method (OSU TBI-ID) and 2) Establish the concurrent criterion-related validity of the TBI-4 with the addition of detailed information elicited by the four questions. Secondary aims include: 1) Determining if the addition of detailed information elicited by the TBI-4 results in increased specificity; 2) Determining whether the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in this sample is concordant with previous research; and 3) Determining whether psychiatric outcomes are worse for veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) than those with no traumatic brain injury(TBI).

Primary Hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1a: The sensitivity and specificity of the TBI-4 will be significantly greater than 0.75 and 0.80, respectively.

Hypothesis 1b: The sensitivity and specificity of the TBI-4 with the addition of detailed information elicited by these questions (i.e., free text information entered by the clinician who administered the TBI-4) will be significantly greater than 0.75 and 0.80, respectively.

Secondary Hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1c: The specificity of the TBI-4 with the addition of detailed information elicited by these questions (i.e., free text information entered by the clinician who administered the TBI-4) will be significantly greater than that of the four questions alone.

Hypothesis 2: A significant difference in psychiatric outcomes (psychiatric hospitalizations, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and completions, and mental health-related contacts) will be identified in those with a history of TBI versus those without a history of TBI as determined, first, by the TBI-4 and, second, by the OSU TBI-ID.

Hypothesis 3: The prevalence of Traumatic Brain Injury- Loss of Consciousness (TBI-LOC) in this population will be similar to that identified by Walker et al1 (31.7% of individuals will report 1 or more TBI-LOC).

Enrollment: 1,810 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Veteran must be at least 18 years of age.
• Veteran must have had a mental health intake no earlier than January of 2007.

Exclusion criteria

• Failure to provide informed consent as evidenced by inability to respond to the above stated questions.
• No Mental Health Intake note in the medical record.
• Presence of a Mental Health Intake note in the computer which does not contain the TBI-4

Trial design

1,810 participants in 2 patient groups

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Description:

Veterans with a positive history of TBI

No Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Description:

Veterans with a negative history of TBI