Early Stress Response: A Vulnerability Framework for Functional Impairment Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Nearly 64% of people with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) experience prolonged symptoms and functional impairments lasting months or years postinjury. Explanations for delayed recovery have varied and lacked a guiding framework, hindering intervention science. Using theory substruction and adapting McLean and associates’ biopsychosocial model for chronic pain after trauma, we suggest that perceived psychological stress and associated neurobiological responses may predict risk for functional impairment. This model can be tested using a biopsychosocial approach to determine the interplay of psychological stress and neurobiological responses implicated in functional impairments after MTBI. Testing of this model will advance understanding of pathways to postconcussion syndrome.