The association of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and head injury with mid-life cognitive function in civilian women

Abstract

Background: Despite evidence linking posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and head injury, separately, with worse cognitive performance, investigations of their combined effects on cognition are limited in civilian women.

Methods: The Cogstate Brief Battery assessment was administered in 10,681 women from the Nurses' Health Study II cohort, mean age 64.9 years (SD = 4.6). Psychological trauma, PTSD, depression, and head injury were assessed using online questionnaires. In this cross-sectional analysis, we used linear regression models to estimate mean differences in cognition by PTSD/depression status and stratified by history of head injury.

Results: History of head injury was prevalent (36%), and significantly more prevalent among women with PTSD and depression (57% of women with PTSD and depression, 21% of women with no psychological trauma or depression). Compared to having no psychological trauma or depression, having combined PTSD and depression was associated with worse performance on psychomotor speed/attention ( $\beta$ = -.15, p = .001) and learning/working memory ( $\beta$ = -.15, p < .001). The joint association of PTSD and depression on worse cognitive function was strongest among women with past head injury, particularly among those with multiple head injuries.

Conclusions: Head injury, like PTSD and depression, was highly prevalent in this sample of civilian women. In combination, these factors were associated with poorer performance on cognitive tasks, a possible marker of future cognitive health. Head injury should be further explored in future studies of PTSD, depression and cognition in women.

Keywords: cognition; cogstate; depression; head injury; mild traumatic brain injury; posttraumatic stress disorder; women.