Catastrophic Injury and Its Association With Negative Mood States

Abstract

Negative mood states are reported to be prevalent symptoms following SCI (spinal cord injury), however, controlled research primarily investigating its occurrence in SCI is uncommon. The primary objective of this paper was to study levels of negative mood states, such as fatigue and related states in people with SCI. Fatigue and mood states were assessed in people with SCI using validated measures, with comparisons made to able-bodied controls with similar age and sex ratio. Participants included 27 people with SCI living in the community and 27 able-bodied controls. The SCI group was found to have significantly elevated fatigue, as well as elevated levels of anger and reduced vigor. The risk of a person with SCI having elevated levels of fatigue was over four times than that of the able-bodied controls and their risk of having elevated anger was nine times more than that of able-bodied persons. The data presented in this study provide preliminary evidence that SCI is associated with negative mood states such as elevated fatigue and the clinical consequences of elevated fatigue to effective adjustment to SCI need to be explored.