Does early beta-blockade in isolated severe traumatic brain injury reduce the risk of post traumatic depression?

• Introduction: Depressive symptoms occur in approximately half of trauma patients, negatively impacting on functional outcome and quality of life following severe head injury. Pontine noradrenaline has been shown to increase upon trauma and associated beta-adrenergic receptor activation appears to consolidate memory formation of traumatic events. Blocking adrenergic activity reduces physiological stress responses during recall of traumatic memories and impairs memory, implying a potential therapeutic role of beta-blockers. This study examines the effect of pre-admission beta-blockade on post-traumatic depression.Methods: All adult trauma patients (>= 18 years) with severe, isolated traumatic brain injury (intracranial Abbreviated Injury Scale score (AIS) >= 3 and extracranial AIS <3) were recruited from the trauma registry of an urban university hospital between 2007 and 2011. Exclusion criteria were in-hospital deaths and prescription of antidepressants up to one year prior to admission. Pre- and post-admission beta-blocker and antidepressant therapy data was requested from the national drugs registry. Post-traumatic depression was defined as the prescription of antidepressants within one year of trauma. Patients with and without pre-admission beta-blockers were matched 1: 1 by age, gender, Glasgow Coma Scale, Injury Severity Score and head AIS. Analysis was carried out using McNemar's and Student's t-test for categorical and continuous data, respectively.Results: A total of 545 patients met the study criteria. Of these, 15% (n = 80) were prescribed beta-blockers. After propensity matching, 80 matched pairs were analyzed. 33% (n = 26) of non beta-blocked patients developed post-traumatic depression, compared to only 18% (n = 14) in the beta-blocked group (p = 0.04). There were no significant differences in ICU (mean days: 5.8 (SD 10.5) vs. 5.6 (SD 7.2), p = 0.85) or hospital length of stay (mean days: 21 (SD 21) vs. 21 (SD 20), p = 0.94) between cohorts.Conclusion: beta-blockade appears to act prophylactically and significantly reduces the risk of posttraumatic depression in patients suffering from isolated severe traumatic brain injuries. Further prospective randomized studies are warranted to validate this finding.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Ortopedi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Orthopaedics (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Kirurgi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Surgery (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Traumatic brain injury

Beta-blockade

Depression

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