Mild traumatic brain injury and Outcomes with VIsual patient Education (MOVIE), a randomised controlled trial.

Rationale: Mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is a common diagnosis at the Emergency department (ED). It is estimated that approximately 85,000 patients in the Netherlands suffer from MTBI each year, of whom 12,580 patients are seen at the ED of Dutch hospitals. In the first weeks to months after MTBI 17-78% of patients suffer from post-concussion symptoms. Previous studies indicate that knowledge and understanding of post-concussion symptoms by the patient may reduce incidence and/or severity of such complaints.


Objective: Our main objective is to study the effect of patient information on occurrence and severity of post-concussion symptoms in patients with MTBI.


Study design: A multi-centre prospective study will be conducted in two phases. Phase 1 is measurement of standard care. Phase 2 is a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), comparing standard management, with two intervention groups.


Study population: All patients >18 years with MTBI attending the ED may be eligible for inclusion.


Intervention (if applicable): Patients will receive a printed folder (written information) in the first intervention group, and in the second intervention group patients will receive written information and they will be asked to watch a video explaining the course of posttraumatic symptoms.


Main study parameters/endpoints: The primary outcome will be the occurrence and severity of post-concussion symptoms at one week and three months after attending the ED.

Our hypothesis is that receiving written and audio-visual patient information will reduce the frequency and severity of post-concussion symptoms in patients with MTBI.

1 week and 3 months

An online video with discharge instructions will be shown, and/or a link to the video will be provided in the leaflet.