The PhD defense will take place

Friday March 3rd, 2023
Time: 13.00
Place: Auditorium, Medicinerhuset, Aalborg University Hospital

After the defense there will be held a reception. All are welcome.

About the PhD thesis

Moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) can result in physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral sequelae, and might have enormous consequences for the person injured as well as the family.

The overall aim of the thesis was to improve knowledge about depression, cognitive sequelae, and outcome among adolescents and young adults with a moderate to severe TBI. The thesis is based on a systematic literature review and three studies based on data from Danish national registries.

In the first study we confirmed that studies on depression after moderate to severe TBI among adolescents and young adults are sparse. In the second study we showed that many adolescents and young adults with an intracranial traumatic lesion struggle with depression and cognitive sequelae within the first year after the injury. In the third study we showed that young survivors with depression and/or cognitive sequelae had a consistently lower global functional outcome and were in risk of not returning to school/work. In the fourth study we showed that Danish adolescents and young adults with an intracranial traumatic lesion had a consistently higher prevalence proportion of dispensed antidepressants from injury to 5-years post-injury compared to the matched general population.

The findings indicate that young survivors of moderate to severe TBI are more vulnerable than their age-matched peers. As young TBI survivors with depression and/or cognitive sequelae had a lower global functional outcome and had difficulties with return to work/school, it seems relevant to identify the young TBI survivors in risk of prolonged sequelae.