Novel Screening Tool and Emotional Recovery Program may Provide Mental Health Support for Trauma Patients

A novel screening tool helps to identify hospitalized trauma patients at high risk for later mental health problems, and an emotional recovery program for trauma patients is feasible, according to two studies published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS).

At least one in five Americans hospitalized after traumatic injury develops posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and/or other psychiatric disorders. However, most U.S. trauma centers report not routinely screening trauma patients for mental health problems, a 2022 survey found. Last year, the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma began requiring ACS-verified trauma centers to routinely screen trauma patients for mental health risks and to refer affected patients to mental healthcare practitioners.

“Early responses to trauma do not accurately predict who will develop mental health problems,” said Eve Carlson, PhD, a clinical psychologist researcher with the National Center for PTSD and lead author of a study published in JACS that described the development and initial performance of a novel mental health risk screen for hospitalized patients.

David Spain, MD, FACS, a trauma surgeon at Stanford Medical Center in Stanford, California, who co-led the study, noted that “existing mental health screening tools are fairly long and have not been widely tested in large groups with different racial or ethnic subgroups.”