TY - JOUR T1 - The role of general practice in following up patients with trauma JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 10 LP - 11 DO - 10.3399/bjgp16X683065 VL - 66 IS - 642 AU - Agnelo Fernandes AU - Lucy McDonnell AU - Stephen Regel Y1 - 2016/01/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/66/642/10.abstract N2 - Worldwide, more than 5 million people die from injuries, accounting for 9% of the world’s deaths.1 In the UK, falls and road traffic accidents are the most common causes of injury2 and GPs are often required to provide psychological support, manage, and coordinate follow up care. Patients with mild head trauma may only present to primary care3 expecting to receive appropriate management and reassurance that their condition is self-limiting. This edition of the BJGP includes two papers highlighting the needs of patients and the challenges facing primary care physicians in following up injuries with both physical and psychological impacts.The first linked paper describes the work of Theadom and colleagues from New Zealand (NZ) who investigated persistent problems in the year following diagnosis of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), resulting from head trauma.4 With regards to brain injury, the term ‘mild’ described patients post head injury who had a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 13–15 or post traumatic amnesia within 24 hours of injury,3 however there is growing evidence that despite being labelled ‘mild’ the immediate effects of mTBI may have longer term consequences. In this study, 341 patients who had sustained an mTBI participated in comprehensive follow up assessments at regular intervals throughout the first year following injury. The assessments focused on post concussion symptoms, cognitive functioning, anxiety, depression, quality of life, and global functioning. Patients who did not attend hospital, and who may have been missed by previous studies, were specifically sought out. The results showed that nearly half (47.5%) of participants experienced four or more mild to severe post-concussion symptoms at 1-year following the initial injury.The most common symptoms at all follow up times were … ER -