Look after your head and neck! Inside there you have a brain. It’s important to get checked even after little fender benders where “nothing really happened”. This study showed the extent of psychiatric illnesses after mild traumatic brain injuries.

A total of 1,084 traumatically injured patients were initially assessed during hospital admission and followed up 3 months and 12 months after injury. Twelve months after injury, 31% of patients reported a psychiatric disorder, and 22% developed a psychiatric disorder that they had never experienced before. The most common new psychiatric disorders were depression (9%), generalized anxiety disorder (9%), posttraumatic stress disorder (6%), and agoraphobia, a fear of social situations (6%).

Am J Psychiatry 2010; 167:312-320