Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry

Traumatic brain injury(TBI) is generally considered to be a risk factor for psychiatric disorders, especially depression and anxiety disorder. Despite the anxiety disorders are frequent sequelae after traumatic brain injury, the patients have not been payed medical attention and treated by doctors properly. The factors of precipitating and sustaining the anxiety disorders after TBI are brain injury itself, and the patient's or caregiver's response to the disability after TBI. To diagnose and treat them effectively, the knowledge about the mechanisms of and symptoms after TBI have to be needed. Psychiatrist should be a supportive and good listener to the patients who are complaining anxiety symptoms and differentiate whether the psychiatric symptoms are due to TBI or not. Because the TBI patients are very sensitive to drug side effects, doctors have to be familiar with the side effects as well as the mechanisms of action of the common psychotropics.

Keywords Traumatic brain injury;Anxiety disorder.