Prevalence of postburn depression following burn injury.

We examined the prevalence of depression after burn injury in 139 adults treated at a major burn center. Interviews were held from one to eight years following the burn. Our subsample, taken from 882 patients treated over a six-year period, comprised all patients with 30% total body surface area burns and a random sample of those with burns of lesser severity. We considered 17 possible predictors of depression (including the severity and placement of the burn and the patient's age, educational background, medical history, employment status, income level, and emotional and psychiatric history). We found that it is the person, rather than the injury, that best predicts postburn depression. The factor most strongly linked with depression was a past history of emotional disturbance. However, after being burned, a significant number of even previously well-adjusted patients show clinical postburn depression.