General Damages for Depression and Anxiety After Injury

General damages for depression and anxiety are recoverable whether the mood disorder was caused directly by the traumatic event or developed later out of chronic pain and lost function. Courts in Atlantic Canada treat the psychological consequence as part of the same injury, and the claimant receives one non pecuniary award covering body and mind. This chapter states what has to be proved.

Depression That Grows Out of Chronic Pain Is Compensable

A large share of claimants with persistent pain develop low mood, and the causal chain is well recognised in the medical literature. The person stops working, stops the activities that gave the week its shape, sleeps badly and withdraws from company. Courts compensate that sequence where a treating physician or psychologist connects it to the injury. The connection has to be stated in the records rather than left to inference, which is why early referral for psychological treatment matters to the claim as well as to the claimant.

Pre Existing Mental Health History Does Not Defeat the Claim

Defendants take a claimant as they find them. A history of depression before the collision does not bar recovery, and where the injury made an existing condition materially worse the claimant recovers for the worsening. What the defence will argue is measurement, saying some portion of the current state would have existed anyway. The answer is the record of function before the incident, including work attendance, medication history, counselling history and whether the claimant was stable. Where a pre existing condition was going to deteriorate regardless, the crumbling skull principle reduces the award to reflect that.

General Damages for Depression and Anxiety Depend on Severity and Duration

An adjustment reaction that settles within months is assessed modestly. A major depressive disorder that persists for years, that requires medication changes or hospital admission, and that ends the claimant’s working life is assessed at a level comparable to a serious physical injury. Suicidal ideation, where it appears in the records, is treated as evidence of severity. Reported awards for serious and persistent psychological injury run well above awards for transient distress, and the decisions are published on CanLII.

Where the Mood Claim Sits in the Wider File

Anxiety about driving after a collision often overlaps with the trauma symptoms in the post-traumatic stress disorder chapter, and low mood is a standard feature of the chronic conditions in the fibromyalgia chapter. Psychological injury also drives many long term disability denials, which the firm handles as long term disability claims. The guide’s opening chapter maps the rest of the series.