Traumatic injuries affect millions of Americans annually, resulting in $671 billion in healthcare costs and lost productivity. Postinjury symptoms, like pain, sleep disturbance, anxiety, depression, and stressor-related disorders are highly prevalent following traumatic orthopedic injuries (TOI) and may contribute to negative long-term outcomes. Symptoms rarely present in isolation, but in clusters of two or more symptoms that co-occur to affect health in aggregate. Identifying symptom cluster profiles following TOI may identify those at highest risk for negative outcomes. Dysregulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a potential biological mechanism responsible for symptom cluster profile membership after TOI and may be targeted in future precision-health applications. The purpose of this paper is to present the protocol of a cross-sectional study designed to identify symptom cluster profiles and measure the extent to which the BDNF val66met mutation and serum concentration of BDNF are associated with membership in symptom cluster profiles. We plan to recruit 150 TOI survivors within the first 72 h of injury. The study aims are to (1) describe TOI survivors' membership in symptom cluster profiles, indicated by pain, sleep disturbance, and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stressor-related disorders, immediately following a TOI; (2) examine associations between demographic and clinical factors and symptom cluster profile membership among TOI survivors; (3) test the hypothesis that low serum concentrations of BDNF are associated with membership among symptom cluster profiles following TOI; and (4) test the hypothesis that the presence of the val66met mutation on one or both alleles of the BDNF gene is associated with membership among symptom cluster profiles following TOI.
Keywords: brain-derived neurotrophic factor; orthopedic trauma; symptom clusters; symptoms.
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