Association Between Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury and Psychiatric Disorders, Mental Illness and Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Global Spine Journal, 2025 · DOI: 10.1177/21925682241307597 · Published: January 1, 2025

Simple Explanation

Traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) is an acute, life-threatening condition that affects health, physical functioning, social activities, and quality of life, causing irreversible physical damage, paraplegia, and even life-threatening injuries. After spinal cord injury, in addition to physical injury, there may also be psychological disorders. Psychiatric sequelae of TSCI include dementia, anxiety, depression, Posttraumatic stress disorders, sleep disorders and substance-related disorders et al. This paper collects relevant literatures in recent years, For the ﬁrst time, meta-analysis was used to demonstrate whether patients with TSCI were signiﬁcantly associated with the risk of psychiatric disorders, mental illness and dementia.

Study Duration

Not specified

Participants

Eleven papers were included

Evidence Level

Systematic review and meta-analysis

Key Findings

1
Patients with traumatic spinal cord injury were at signiﬁcantly higher risk of anxiety, depression, psychosis, dementia, insomnia, adjustment disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, alcohol-related disorders, substance-use disorders, adjustment reactions, drug dependence, and central pain relative to patients with non-traumatic spinal cord injury (P < 0.05).
2
There was no signiﬁcant correlation between traumatic spinal cord injury and PTSD.
3
Traumatic spinal cord injury may increase the risk of developing anxiety, depression, psychiatric disorders, and dementia; with national regional differences in the risk of developing anxiety.

Research Summary

This study assessed the correlation between TSCI patients and anxiety, The results of meta-analysis showed that the risk of anxiety in TSCI patients was signiﬁcantly higher than that in control group, there was a signiﬁcant correlation between TSCI and the risk of anxiety. This study evaluated the association between patients with TSCI and depression, The results showed that patients with TSCI had a signiﬁcantly higher risk of anxiety than those in the control group, Some scholars have reported that patients with spinal cord injury have a higher incidence of depression, This study evaluated the association between the TSCI patients and dementia, and the results showed that the TSCI patients have a signiﬁcantly higher risk of developing dementia than the controls. Thus, adults with TSCI have a higher risk of dementia.

Practical Implications

Clinical Awareness

Clinical staff should be alert to the possibility of co-existence of psychiatric disorders, psychological disorders and dementia when diagnosing patients with traumatic spinal cord injury.

Psychological Support

Nursing staff need to communicate with patients frequently, psychological counselling for patients, explaining to patients the successful cases of treatment, which will help guide patients out of negative emotions, increase patients’ compliance with treatment, and thus enhance the treatment effect of patients.

Comprehensive Supervision

Family members and healthcare professionals implement all-round supervision of the patient, which contributes to the patient’s functional recovery.

Study Limitations

1
Significant heterogeneity between the findings of the included literature.
2
A portion of the original literature included in this study did not deﬁne and differentiate the severity of TSCI.
3
There is a lack of national and international studies on large samples exploring the TSCI and the risk of developing dementia

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