Association of posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury with aggressive driving in Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans.
Elizabeth E Van Voorhees, Daniel A Moore, Nathan A Kimbrel and 4 others
PMID 29553791WHAT IT FOUND
Veterans with PTSD, with or without TBI, were more likely to say they needed to cut down on aggressive driving.
Veterans with TBI alone were not. Ask about aggressive driving in PTSD care.
Key findings
01In adjusted analysis, PTSD without TBI had an odds ratio of 3.63 and PTSD with TBI had an odds ratio of 5.01 for road rage; TBI without PTSD was not significant.
02Veterans with PTSD, regardless of TBI status, reported significantly higher road rage rates than veterans with neither PTSD nor TBI and than veterans with TBI only.
03VA service use was associated with road rage before adjustment (odds ratio 1.87), but not after adjustment for demographic and clinical factors.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Road rage was measured with one self-report item about wanting or needing to cut down, so it may mix behaviour and insight. PTSD and TBI were assessed with self-report checklists, not clinical diagnosis. All information came from one survey, so it cannot show that PTSD caused aggressive driving. Only 1161 of 4004 delivered surveys were completed and returned, and 1102 were analysed, so non-response may limit generalisability. TBI was coded only when a deployment injury plus symptoms such as being dazed, seeing stars, loss of consciousness, or not remembering the injury were reported. The authors did not test whether treating PTSD reduces aggressive driving.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not report author conflicts. It lists the work as U.S. Government research support, not Public Health Service.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that TBI alone explains aggressive driving. Veterans with TBI without PTSD did not report significantly higher road rage than veterans with neither PTSD nor TBI.