Coping strategies in patients with acquired brain injury: relationships between coping, apathy, depression and lesion location

Coping strategies in individuals suffering severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), cerebrovascular accidents (CVA), or hypoxic brain injury (HBI) were investigated in relation to apathy, depression, and lesion location. Seventy patients (27 with TBI, 30 with CVA, and 13 with HBI) filled in a coping questionnaire (COPE) and were evaluated with respect to apathy and depression. A comparison sample of 71 students also filled in COPE. Patients coping strategies were similar to the comparison group, but patients tended to display less differentiated coping styles. A factor analysis indicated two dimensions of coping in the patient sample; approach oriented and avoidance oriented coping. Approach and avoidance coping sum scores, based on subscales from the two factors, were positively correlated in the patient sample, but not in the comparison group. Lack of active approach oriented coping was associated with apathy, whereas avoidant coping was associated with depression. Coping styles were not related to lesion location. Apathy was related to subcortical and right hemisphere lesions. In bivariate analyses, depression was unrelated to lesion location, but, in a MANCOVA, avoidant coping, apathy and lesion location (left hemisphere lesions) contributed to the variance in positive depressive symptoms. The consistent relationships between coping strategies and neuropsychiatric symptoms were interpreted as two dimensions of adaptational behaviour: an active vs. passive dimension and a depression-distress-avoidance dimension.