Mental disorders following electrical injuries—A register-based, matched cohort study

Abstract

Introduction Electrical injuries happen every day in homes and workplaces. Not only may these injuries cause physical damage and disability, they may also cause mental disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate if persons with an electrical injury suffer from mental disorders in the following years. Material and methods In a prospective matched cohort design, we identified 14.112 electrical injuries in two Danish registries and matched these with persons with dislocation/sprain injuries or eye injuries, respectively, as well as with persons from the workforce from the same occupation, using year of injury, sex and age as matching variables. We identified possible outcomes in terms of mental diagnoses in the Danish National Patient registry, based on literature, including reviews, original studies and case-reports as well as experiences from clinical praxis. The associations were analyzed using conditional cox- and logistic regression. Results We found that the following of the examined outcomes were associated with exposure to an electrical injury compared to the matched controls. Some of the outcomes showed the strongest associations shortly after the injury, namely ‘mental disorders due to known physiological condition’, ‘anxiety and adjustment disorders’, and especially the ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)’ subgroup. The same pattern was seen for ‘Depression’ although the associations were weaker. Other conditions took time to develop (‘Somatoform disorders’), or were only present in the time to event analysis (‘other non-psychotic mental disorders’ and ‘sleep disorders’). The findings were consistent in all three matches, with the highest risk estimates in the occupation match. Conclusion Electrical injuries may result in mental disorders, both acute and several years after. However, the absolute risk is limited as most of the outcomes are rare.

Neurological symptoms and disorders following electrical injury: A register-based matched cohort study

“…A match with 10 match-persons was possible for almost all electrical injuries, before the exclusions. A full flowchart of the study has been published previously in [ 26 ].…”

“…Only 1/5 of the injuries led to hospitalisation for one day or more (19.4% in DWEA and 21.9% in DNPR). More details on the study population can be found in [ 26 ].…”

Electricians’ Health After Electrical Shocks

“…However, the typical pattern of symptoms occurring immediately after an electrical shock and then receding soon after does not negate the persistence of some symptoms among a small number of victims of electrical injuries. in a recent register-based study that analyzed electrical injuries registered with The Danish National Patient registry (hospital patients) and with The Danish Working Environment Authority (work injuries) over an 18-year period, we found several mental and physical diagnoses related to both mental and physical health 24,48 and to sickleave and low work participation in the subsequent years 32 . In these studies we used a matched cohort design that compared electrical injuries to other injuries, and the participants to other persons with the same occupation.…”

Electrical injury and the long‐term risk of cataract: A prospective matched cohort study

“…The purpose of this match was to take into consideration whether persons in certain occupations were at higher risk of cataract due to socioeconomic factors or other occupational exposure than electric shocks. More detailed descriptions of the matching procedure were reported in an earlier publication (Biering et al, 2020).…”