What traditional neuropsychological assessment got wrong about mild traumatic brain injury. II: limitations in test development, research design, statistical and psychometric issues.

ABSTRACT

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: This is Part II of a four-part opinion review on traditional neuropsychological assessment methods and findings associated with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). This Part II review focuses on historical, psychometric and statistical issues involving traditional neuropsychological methods that have been used in neuropsychological outcome studies of mTBI, but demonstrates the critical limitations of traditional methods. RESEARCH DESIGN: This is an opinion review. METHODS AND PROCEDURES Traditional neuropsychological tests are dated and lack specificity in evaluating such a heterogenous and complex injury as occurs with mTBI. MAIN OUTCOME AND RESULTS: In this review, we demonstrate traditional neuropsychological methods were never developed as standalone measures for detecting subtle changes in neurocognitive or neurobehavioral functioning and likewise, never designed to address the multifaceted issues related to underlying mTBI neuropathology symptom burden from having sustained a concussive brain injury. CONCLUSIONS: For neuropsychological assessment to continue to contribute to clinical practice and outcome literature involving mTBI, major innovative changes are needed that will likely require technological advances of novel assessment techniques more specifically directed to evaluating the mTBI patient. These will be discussed in Part IV.