Oxford study aims to lower sadness after brain injury

A study has been started to discover if a mild anti-depressant can cut depression rates in patients with a traumatic brain injury.

The study, called STOP-D, is a collaboration between Oxford University Hospitals and Kings College London.

Patients will receive either the light anti-depressant sertraline or a dummy for a full year.

The study's aim is to track the possible impacts of sertraline on depression and life quality.

It will recruit patients from nine of England’s top trauma centres, covering a wide range of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.

Dr Vanessa Raymont, co-chief investigator on the study from the University of Oxford's Psychiatry department said: "Given that the risk of developing depression for those patients with a traumatic brain injury is so great, this study is a crucial step in supporting those patients to receive the best possible outcome for their long-term recovery and wellbeing.

"The risk of post-traumatic depression emerging so soon after a traumatic brain injury suggests that initiation of an anti-depressant within a few weeks of the traumatic brain injury could greatly reduce the incidence of post-traumatic depression.

"Our findings will inform whether - and how - to integrate the screening and management for depression in traumatic brain injury patients within major trauma centres nationally."

Up to half of people who suffer a traumatic brain injury develop some type of depression within 10 years of their injury.

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