The Silent Struggle: Evidence for Behavioral Changes from Psychosocial Comorbidities in Patients with Physical Trauma

Abstract

The prevalence of psychosocial comorbidities is rampant among individuals with physical trauma. In the context of this study, psychosocial comorbidities are the co-development of mental disorders with physical trauma. The development of these comorbidities in recovering orthopedic patients can lead to detrimental consequences with regards to their lifestyle, ability to recover, physical and mental wellbeing, and overall health. These developing mental illnesses can be troublesome to any individual who suffers from the effects of such mental health difficulties, but psychosocial comorbidities are even more harmful to high-risk individuals who suffer a physical injury and require a fortified mental state to recovery properly. The literature review explored the prevalence and most frequent variations of psychosocial comorbidities in orthopedic patients, the behavioral changes associated with psychosocial comorbidities, how the behavioral changes impact one’s ability to recover, and finally, medical professionals’ stigmatizing attitudes and neglect to patients’ mental health. Following the literature review, a survey was distributed to the general population that provides evidence to the causal relationships between psychosocial comorbidities, recovery, and the varying levels of medical attention directed towards mental disparities. The results of the survey display significantly high incidences of psychosocial comorbidities in patients with physical trauma. Additionally, subjects who required surgery exhibited a significantly higher level of impact to their mental state than non-surgery subjects. Among the rampant psychosocial comorbidities present in the subject population, the results provide evidence for positive and deleterious feedback loops directly associated with mental state and physical state/rehabilitation progress. Finally, there is a high incidence of medical professionals neglecting patient mental health. The results from the survey and statistical analysis provides evidence to many ongoing issues within the medical community; however, the discoveries from this study reveal a possible methodology to remedy these detrimental aspects to improve the dynamic between patients and medical professional as well as mitigating the effects of psychosocial comorbidities in patients with physical trauma.