Spinal Cord Injury Tied to Higher Risk for Psychological Morbidity

HealthDay News — Adults with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) have a higher incidence of and risk for common psychological morbidities, according to a study published online Jan. 21 in Spinal Cord.

Mark D. Peterson, Ph.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues compared the incidence of psychological morbidities among adults with and without traumatic SCI and examined the effect of chronic centralized and neuropathic pain on outcomes. The analysis included 9,081 privately insured adults with an ICD-9-CM diagnostic code for traumatic SCI and 1,474,232 controls.

The researchers found that adults with SCI had a higher incidence of any psychological morbidity versus adults without SCI (59.1 versus 30.9 percent). Adults with SCI had a greater hazard for any psychological morbidity (hazard ratio [HR], 1.67) and all but one psychological disorder (impulse control disorders), with HRs ranging from 1.31 for insomnia to 2.10 for posttraumatic stress disorder. There was an association noted for both centralized and neuropathic pain with all psychological disorders, ranging from HRs of 1.31 for dementia to 3.83 for anxiety.

“Efforts are needed to facilitate the development of early interventions to reduce risk of chronic centralized and neuropathic pain and psychological morbidity onset/progression in this higher risk population,” the authors write.

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