Postconcussional symptoms in chronic back pain.

Checklist measures of persisting postconcussional and control symptom change (postinjury-preinjury self-ratings on 5-point scales) were compared among selected groups of consecutive referrals with traumatic back pain and concussion. Mean symptom change was not significantly different between the 2 groups. Positive correlations were found between postconcussional symptom change and psychometric measures of emotional distress for participants with valid Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory profiles in the 2 groups combined. Results suggested that persisting postconcussional symptoms were not specific to concussion but were associated with increased emotional distress.