Affiliations: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Ralph H. Johnson VAMC, Charleston, SC, USA | Dartmouth Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH 03756, USA. Tel.: +1 603 650 5824; Fax: +1 603 650 5842; E-mail: Thomas.W.McAllister@Dartmouth.edu
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: D. Walter Hiott, M.D., MUSC, Department of Psychiatry, 67 President Street, 5 South, Charleston, SC 29412, USA. Tel.: +1 843 792 2123; Fax: +1 843 792 0048; E-mail: hiottdw@musc.edu
Abstract: Anxiety disorders are common in the general population and may be even more common in people with traumatic brain injuries. This article presents a review of the literature on anxiety disorders as a result of traumatic brain injury, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and panic disorder. Our current understanding suggests that the increased frequency of anxiety disorders after TBI may reflect an overlap between brain regions vulnerable to traumatic brain injury, and the neural circuitry of these disorders. Issues regarding treatment are largely anecdotal, and much remains unsettled. More research is needed, both in terms of diagnosis and treatment.
