Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability among children and young adults in industrialized countries, but strikingly little is known how patients cope with the long-term consequences of TBI. Thus, the aim of the current study was to elucidate health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and outcome predictors in chronic TBI adults. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 439 former patients were invited to report HRQoL up to 10 years after mild, moderate or severe TBI using the QOLIBRI (Quality of Life after Brain Injury) questionnaire. The QOLIBRI total score has a maximum score of 100. A score below 60 indicates an unfavorable outcome with an increased risk of an affective and/or anxiety disorder. Results were correlated with demographics and basic characteristics received from medical records (TBI severity, etiology, age at TBI, age at survey, time elapsed since TBI, and sex) using regression models. Differences were considered significant at p < 0.05. Results: From the 439 invited patients, 135 out of 150 in principle eligible patients (90%) completed the questionnaire; 76% were male, and most patients experienced severe TBI due to a traffic-related accident (49%) or a fall (44%). The mean QOLIBRI total score was 65.5 (± 22.6), indicating good HRQoL. Factors for higher level of satisfaction (p = 0.03; adjusted R² = 0.1) were autonomy in daily life (p = 0.03; adjusted R² = 0.09) and cognition (p = 0.05; adjusted R² = 0.05). HRQoL was weakly correlated with initial TBI severity (p = 0.04; adjusted R² = 0.02). 36% of patients reported unfavorable HRQoL with increased risk of one (20%) or two (16%) psychiatric disorders. Conclusions: The majority of chronic TBI patients reported good HRQoL and the initial TBI severity is a slight contributor but not a strong predictor of HRQoL. Autonomy and cognition are decisive factors for satisfied outcome and should be clearly addressed in neurorehabilitation. One third of patients, however, suffer from unsatisfactory outcome with psychiatric sequelae. Thus, an early neuropsychiatric assessment after TBI is necessary and need to be installed in future TBI guidelines.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of disability in the working population and becomes increasingly prevalent in the elderly. Thus, TBI is a major global health burden. However, age- and sex-related long-term outcome regarding patient’s health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is yet not clarified. In this cross-sectional study, we present age- and sex-related demographics and HRQoL up to 10 years after TBI using the Quality of Life after Brain Injury (QOLIBRI) instrument. The QOLIBRI total score ranges from zero to 100 indicating good (≥ 60), moderate (40–59) or unfavorable (< 40) HRQoL. Two-thirds of the entire chronic TBI cohort (102 males; 33 females) aged 18–85 years reported good HRQoL up to 10 years after TBI. TBI etiology differed between sexes with females suffering more often from traffic- than fall-related TBI (p = 0.01) with increasing prevalence during aging (p = < 0.001). HRQoL (good/moderate/unfavorable) differed between sexes (p < 0.0001) with 17% more females reporting moderate outcome (p = 0.01). Specifically, older females (54–76-years at TBI) were affected, while males constantly reported good HRQoL (p = 0.017). Cognition (p = 0.014), self-perception (p = 0.009), and emotions (p = 0.016) rather than physical problems (p = 0.1) constrained older females’ HRQoL after TBI. Experiencing TBI during aging does not influence HRQoL outcome in males but females suggesting that female brains cope less well with a traumatic injury during aging. Therefore, older females need long-term follow-ups after TBI to detect neuropsychiatric sequels that restrict their quality of life. Further investigations are necessary to uncover the mechanisms of this so far unknown phenomenon.

Depression and anxiety are common following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Understanding their prevalence and interplay within the first year after TBI with differing severities may improve patients’ outcomes after TBI. Individuals with a clinical diagnosis of TBI recruited for the large European collaborative longitudinal study CENTER-TBI were screened for patient-reported major depression (MD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) at three, six, and twelve months post-injury (N = 1683). Data were analyzed using autoregressive cross-lagged models. Sociodemographic, premorbid and injury-related factors were examined as risk factors. 14.1–15.5% of TBI patients reported moderate to severe MD at three to twelve months after TBI, 7.9–9.5% reported GAD. Depression and anxiety after TBI presented high within-domain persistency and cross-domain concurrent associations. MD at three months post-TBI had a significant impact on GAD at six months post-TBI, while both acted bidirectionally at six to twelve months post-TBI. Being more severely disabled, having experienced major extracranial injuries, an intensive care unit stay, and being female were risk factors for more severe MD and GAD. Major trauma and the level of consciousness after TBI were additionally associated with more severe MD, whereas being younger was related to more severe GAD. Individuals after TBI should be screened and treated for MD and GAD early on, as both psychiatric disturbances are highly persistent and bi-directional in their impact. More severely disabled patients are particularly vulnerable, and thus warrant timely screening and intensive follow-up treatment.

Assessing outcomes in multinational studies on traumatic brain injury (TBI) poses major challenges and requires relevant instruments in languages other than English. Of the 19 outcome instruments selected for use in the observational Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in TBI (CENTER-TBI) study, 17 measures lacked translations in at least one target language. To fill this gap, we aimed to develop well-translated linguistically and psychometrically validated instruments. We performed translations and linguistic validations of patient-reported measures (PROMs), clinician-reported (ClinRO), and performance-based (PerfO) outcome instruments, using forward and backward translations, reconciliations, cognitive debriefings with up to 10 participants, iterative revisions, and international harmonization with input from over 150 international collaborators. In total, 237 translations and 211 linguistic validations were carried out in up to 20 languages. Translations were evaluated at the linguistic and cultural level by coding changes when the original versions are compared with subsequent translation steps, using the output of cognitive debriefings, and using comprehension rates. The average comprehension rate per instrument varied from 88% to 98%, indicating a good quality of the translations. These outcome instruments provide a solid basis for future TBI research and clinical practice and allow the aggregation and analysis of data across different countries and languages.

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the most relevant external risk factor for dementia and a major global health burden. Mild TBI (mTBI) contributes to up to 90% of all TBIs, and the classification “mild” often misrepresents the patient’s burden who suffer from neuropsychiatric long-term sequelae. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) allows in vivo detection of compromised brain metabolism although it is not routinely used after TBI. Objective: Thus, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to elucidate if MRS has the potential to identify changes in brain metabolism in adult patients after a single mTBI with a negative routine brain scan (CCT and/or MRI scan) compared to aged- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) during the acute or subacute postinjury phase (≤90 days after mTBI). Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted from the first edition of electronic databases until January 31, 2020. Group analyses were performed per metabolite using a random-effects model. Results: Four and 2 out of 5,417 articles met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis and systematic review, respectively. For the meta-analysis, 50 mTBI patients and 51 HC with a mean age of 31 and 30 years, respectively, were scanned using N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA), a marker for neuronal integrity. Glutamate (Glu), a marker for disturbed brain metabolism, choline (Cho), a marker for increased cell membrane turnover, and creatine (Cr) were used in 2 out of the 4 included articles. Regions of interests were the frontal lobe, the white matter around 1 cm above the lateral ventricles, or the whole brain. NAA was decreased in patients compared to HC with an effect size (ES) of –0.49 (95% CI –1.08 to 0.09), primarily measured in the frontal lobe. Glu was increased in the white matter in 22 mTBI patients compared to 22 HC (ES 0.79; 95% CI 0.17–1.41). Cho was decreased in 31 mTBI patients compared to 31 HC (ES –0.31; 95% CI –0.81 to 0.19). Cr was contradictory and, therefore, potentially not suitable as a reference marker after mTBI. Conclusions: MRS pinpoints changes in posttraumatic brain metabolism that correlate with cognitive dysfunction and, thus, might possibly help to detect mTBI patients at risk for unfavorable outcome or posttraumatic neurodegeneration early.