gms | German Medical Science

65th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

11 - 14 May 2014, Dresden

Incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in brain surgery. A misattributed disorder?

Meeting Abstract

  • Ehab Shiban - Neurochirurgische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München
  • Youssef Shiban - Lehrstuhl für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Regensburg
  • Paul Pauli - Lehrstuhl für Psychologie I, Biologische Psychologie, Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Würzburg
  • Jens Lehmberg - Neurochirurgische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München
  • Andreas Mühlberger - Lehrstuhl für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Regensburg
  • Bernhard Meyer - Neurochirurgische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 65. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC). Dresden, 11.-14.05.2014. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2014. DocP 088

doi: 10.3205/14dgnc484, urn:nbn:de:0183-14dgnc4849

Published: May 13, 2014

© 2014 Shiban et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

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Objective: To assess the incidence of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in patients undergoing elective brain surgery.

Method: A prospective cohort study of 52 patients undergoing elective brain surgery was examined. The incidence of development of PTSD symptoms was evaluated using a structured clinical interview (SCID) and a battery of standardized questionnaires (STAI-S, STAI-T, ASI-3, PTSS-10, ADS-K, BSSS) before surgery as well as 1 week, 1 month and 3 months postoperatively. In addition the short form SF36 and EuroQOL-3D were completed preoperatively and at 3 months postoperatively.

Results: 19 patients were male (36%); mean age was 51,9 years (range 23–78 years). Most patients were married (55%). 21 patients (39%) had previous psychological treatment. PTSD symptoms were reported in 12 cases (23%) prior to surgery. At 1 and 3 months follow-up 12 (23%) and 8 patients (15%) still had PTSD symptoms, respectively.

Conclusions: Our results reveal that PTSD symptoms have a high incidence in patients before undergoing elective brain surgery. Further research is needed in order to determine the relevant incident triggering the PTSD symptoms. Psychological support is needed for patients suffering from PTSD symptoms as we could observe a stabilisation in the symptoms also at 3month follow-up.

Note: Ehab Shiban and Youssef Shiban contributed equally.