The Journal of nervous and mental disease
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J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. · Aug 2005
Comparative StudyPostconcussional disorder: Are the DSM-IV criteria an improvement over the ICD-10?
Little is known about the characteristics and outcomes of patients diagnosed with postconcussional disorder (PCD) under the provisionally proposed criteria in the DSM-IV and how they differ from patients diagnosed with postconcussional syndrome (PCS) under the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition clinical (ICD-10) criteria. This study investigated differences in outcome based on a diagnosis of PCD (DSM-IV) versus PCS (ICD-10 clinical criteria) as to which criteria set might be preferred for clinical practice. A consecutive series of adult patients with mild (N = 319) to moderate (N = 21) traumatic brain injury was assessed at 3 months postinjury with a brief neuropsychological battery and measures of specific outcome domains. ⋯ Although the two criteria sets resulted in markedly different incidence rates, there was no substantial pattern of differences between the DSM-IV and ICD-10 in the outcome domains of psychiatric symptoms and disorders, social and community integration, health-related quality of life, or global outcome as measured by the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended. In spite of significant differences between the two diagnostic criteria sets and different incidence rates for PCD/PCS, outcome in all measured domains was very similar at 3 months postinjury. There is no compelling evidence, based on these outcome domains, to suggest which of the two diagnostic criteria sets should be clinically preferred.