Cognitive functioning following traumatic brain injury: A five-year follow-up

• Main Authors: Marsh, Nigel V.*, Ludbrook, Maria R, Gaffaney, Lauren C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOS Press 2016
• Subjects: BF Psychology; R Medicine (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/471/1/Marsh%2C%20Ludbrook%2C%20%26%20Gaffaney%20%282016%29.pdf; http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/471/; http://www.iospress.nl/journal/neurorehabilitation/
• Institution: Sunway University

To describe the long-term prevalence and severity of cognitive deficits following significant (i.e., ventilation required for >24 hours) traumatic brain injury. To assess a comprehensive range of cognitive functions using psychometric measures with established normative, reliability, and validity data. A group of 71adults was assessed at approximately five years(mean=66months)following injury. Assessment of cognitive functioning covered the domains of intelligence, attention, verbal and visual memory, visual-spatial construction, and executive functions. Impairment was evident across all domains but prevalence varied both within and between domains. Across aspects of intelligence clinical impairment ranged from 8–25%, attention 39–62%, verbal memory 16–46%, visual memory 23–51%,visual-spatialconstruction38%,andexecutivefunctions(verbalfluency)13%.Inaddition,3–23%ofperformances across the measures were in the borderline range, suggesting a high prevalence of subclinical deficit. Although the prevalence of impairment may vary across cognitive domains, long-term follow-up documented deficits in all six domains. These findings provide further evidence that while improvement of cognitive functioning following significant traumatic brain injury may be possible, recovery of function is unlikely.