Associations between coping style, illness perceptions and self-reported symptoms after mild traumatic brain injury in prospectively studied pre-morbidly healthy individuals

This study investigated whether coping style and/or illness perceptions are related to the severity of self-reported post-concussion syndrome (PCS) symptoms in the postacute period after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). We hypothesised that reporting of early and late enduring-type PCS symptomatology (self-reported symptoms) would be significantly and negatively associated with: (a) an active approach coping style and (b) the belief that the injury would have negative consequences on the respondent's life. Using a prospective observational design we assessed 61 pre-morbidly healthy individuals who were admitted to hospital after an mTBI. Participants were assessed with measures of coping style and illness perception as well as PCS, depressive, anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptomatology. After controlling for current psychological distress, approach coping style significantly and independently predicted the severity of self-reported symptoms for early-type PCS symptomatology, but not late enduring-type PCS symptoms. The extent to which the respondent believed their symptoms were due to the mTBI significantly and independently predicted both early and late enduringtype PCS symptoms. This study indicates that different patterns of coping and illness perceptions are associated with early vs. late enduring types of PCS symptoms; this may have implications for the treatment of post-injury self-reported symptoms.