Enhanced Screening for Early Treatment Targets After MTBI

February 25, 2022 updated by: Noah Silverberg, University of British Columbia

Enhanced Screening for Early Treatment Targets After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

The study will examine whether enhancing screening-informed follow-up letters will improve (i) family physician compliance with best practice guidelines for managing persistent symptoms following concussion, and (ii) clinical outcomes from concussion.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Family physicians are well positioned to proactively manage symptoms in the weeks following MTBI, which could prevent chronicity and reduce the need for specialist treatment. Clinical practice guidelines are now available for MTBI management in primary care, such as those developed by the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation (ONF). However, awareness and use of these guidelines may be low. Distilling the guidelines into a small number of actionable messages that are tailored to an individual patient may facilitate family physician implementation.

The ONF guidelines for MTBI propose that early intervention should prioritize the most readily treatable symptoms - mood (depression and anxiety), insomnia, and headaches. The present cluster randomized trial will evaluate whether screening for these conditions and sending family physicians treatment algorithms for positive screening test results will result in earlier evidence-based treatment.

Patients will be recruited from two concussion clinics that provide group education sessions. Following the education session, eligible participants will complete self-reported screening measures for depression, anxiety, insomnia, and headaches. Family physicians will be randomized to receive these screening test results with associated treatment algorithms from the ONF guidelines or a letter providing generic MTBI management recommendations from the ONF guidelines (currently done as usual care).

Patients will be assessed by telephone one month and three months after the intervention. The primary outcome will be patient-reported treatment utilization that is congruent with the ONF guidelines for depression, anxiety, insomnia, and headaches after MTBI.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

150

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • British Columbia
      • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
        • GF Strong Rehab Centre, 4255 Laurel Street

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 60 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Aged 18 to 60 years.
  • Has a family physician.
  • Physician diagnosed MTBI less than 3 months ago.
  • English reading comprehension sufficient for the consent form and standardized questionnaires.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • English reading comprehension not sufficient for the consent form and standardized questionnaires.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Enhanced screening-informed letter
Family physicians will receive a letter that includes their patient's screening test results and associated symptom-specific recommendations from the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation clinical practice guidelines for MTBI (2013).
Family Physicians will be sent a letter that includes their screening test results and associated symptom-specific recommendations from the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation clinical practice guidelines.
No Intervention: Standard letter
Family physicians will receive a letter that includes generic recommendations for managing MTBI based on the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation clinical practice guidelines (2013). Screening test results will not be provided.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Family physician compliance with guidelines
Time Frame: 1 month after intervention.
Patient recall of receiving advice, referrals, and prescriptions from their family physician.
1 month after intervention.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Family physician compliance with guidelines (chart review)
Time Frame: 6 to 12 months post injury
Advice, referrals, and prescriptions related to MTBI care, extracted from chart audits.
6 to 12 months post injury
Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire
Time Frame: 1- and 3-months after intervention.
1- and 3-months after intervention.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7)
Time Frame: 1- and 3-months after intervention.
1- and 3-months after intervention.
Personal Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)
Time Frame: 1- and 3-months after intervention.
1- and 3-months after intervention.
Insomnia Severity Scale (ISI)
Time Frame: 1- and 3-months after intervention.
1- and 3-months after intervention.
World Health Organization Disability Schedule (WHODAS-II) 12 item
Time Frame: 1- and 3-months after intervention.
1- and 3-months after intervention.
Quality of Life after Brain Injury Overall Scale (QOLIBRI-OS)
Time Frame: 1- and 3-months after intervention.
1- and 3-months after intervention.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Collaborators

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Noah Silverberg, PhD, University of British Columbia

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 9, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 30, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

June 22, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 12, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 17, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

July 18, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 2, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 25, 2022

Last Verified

February 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • H17-00584

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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