Commentary and perspectives on R.M. Allen's "The test performance of the brain injured".

Significant advances have occurred in the study of the neuropsychology of head injury since R.M. Allen's (1947) paper. These include better conceptualization of brain-behavior relationships, advances in neuropsychological instruments, normative data and assessment paradigms, structural and functional brain imaging techniques, greater understanding of the mechanisms of brain injury, and the classification and quantification of brain injury. However, because of conceptual and methodological problems there has been a relative lack of progress in understanding the etiology of symptoms in mild head injury. To date, studies of mild head injury have produced widely mixed findings. Further, orthopedic injury, chronic pain, litigation, and other conditions may also produce cognitive and behavioral changes similar to those seen in mild head injury. The authors outline a study design with two control groups (other injury and noninjury) contrasted with mild closed head injury to resolve the issue of whether functional changes following an injury are due to a specific head injury effect or to more general injury factor(s). Results of extant studies using this design are discussed, along with future directions for neuropsychological assessment.

Persistent Post-Concussive Syndrome: A proposed methodology and literature review to determine the effects, if any, of mild head and other bodily injury.

Following mild head injury, a subgroup of individuals exhibit a constellation of chronic symptoms, a condition Alexander (1995) labeled Persistent Post-Concussive Syndrome (PPCS). He implicated neurological factors in the initial phase of the syndrome but psychological factors in the maintenance of symptoms. However, it is unclear as to whether an initial mild head injury is necessary or sufficient to cause the symptoms of PPCS. We first outline a study design comparing a mild closed-head injury group to both a normal and an other injury control group to answer this question. Next, we review the literature since 1960 to determine the findings of any studies using this design. The results of the literature review indicate that few such studies exist. To date, those that have been done suggest that there is no strong evidence for a specific effect for mild head injury on cognitive functioning. We discuss directions for future research given these findings.

When depression breeds contempt: reassurance seeking, self-esteem, and rejection of depressed college students by their roommates.

To test Coyne's (1976b) theory of depression, students' levels of depressive symptoms, reassurance seeking, and self-esteem were assessed at Time 1, and their same-gender roommates' appraisals of them were assessed 5 weeks later. Mildly depressed students engaged in the type of reassurance seeking described by Coyne. Among men, but not women, mildly depressed students were rejected if they strongly sought reassurance and had low self-esteem but not if they did not seek reassurance or had high self-esteem. Although induction of depressed symptoms in roommates did occur, this contagion effect did not account for the depression-rejection relationship. The prediction that unsupportive, intolerant, or unempathic others would be particularly likely to respond with rejection to reassurance-seeking depressed students with low self-esteem received partial support. Implications for future work on the interpersonal aspects of depression are discussed.