Self and parent ratings of executive functioning after adolescent traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the level of agreement between adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their parents in standardized ratings of executive functioning, and to determine correlates of discrepancies between those ratings. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-eight 11- to 16-year-old adolescents with TBI and their parents, and 97 neuropsychologically healthy controls. METHOD: Five-year consecutive series of rehabilitation referrals for TBI. MEASURES: Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Self Report (BRIEF-SR) and Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) parent report versions. RESULTS: Self and parent ratings were moderately positively correlated in both the TBI group and the control group, but parents generally identified more executive dysfunction than did the adolescents. Parent-adolescent discrepancies were statistically significantly greater in the TBI group than in the control group on the Metacognitive index but not the Behavioral Regulation index. The degree of the former discrepancy was predicted by duration of coma in the TBI group. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents with more severe TBI may underestimate their own degree of executive dysfunction in daily life, particularly aspects of metacognitive abilities, possibly, in part, because of an organic-based lack of deficit awareness.

Understanding and managing coma stimulation: are we doing everything we can?

The incidence of people surviving with traumatic brain injury is rising at a remarkable pace. Unfortunately, patients also experience some form of coma and significant deficits (ie, cognitive, functional, etc). The focus is shifting from saving these patients to trying to figure out what else can be done for them? In the past, patients were medically maintained, stabilized, and then sent to rehabilitation centers for coma stimulation, in the hope of waking up their reticular activating system. Today, healthcare professionals are being encouraged to research and explore the possibility of implementing structured coma stimulation programs as early as 72 hours postinjury in the intensive care unit. Starting early is of paramount importance to a patient's survival, quality of life, and overall long-term prognosis. The goal of this article is to educate healthcare professionals (in the hospital setting) about managing and implementing structured sensory stimulation sessions.

Role of premorbid factors in predicting safe return to driving after severe TBI.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: The present study explored the possibility of predicting post-injury fitness to safe driving in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) (n = 66). METHODS AND PROCEDURE: Sixteen different measures, derived from four domains (demo/biographic, medico-functional, neuropsychological, and psychosocial) were used as predictor variables, whereas driving outcomes were assessed in terms of driving status (post-TBI drivers versus non-drivers) and driving safety (number of post-TBI car accidents and violations). MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: About 50% of the patients resumed driving after TBI. Compared to post-TBI non-drivers, post-injury drivers had shorter coma duration. With regard to driving safety, the final multiple regression model combined four predictors (years post-injury, accidents and violations before TBI, pre-TBI-risky-personality-index, and pre-TBI-risky-driving-style-index) and explained 72.5% of variance in the outcome measure. CONCLUSIONS: Since the best three predictors of post-injury driving safety addressed patients' premorbid factors, the results suggest that in order to evaluate the actual possibility of safe driving after TBI, it would be advisable to consider carefully patients' pre-TBI histories.

Clinical predictors and neuropsychological outcome in severe traumatic brain injury patients.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to evaluate the possible significant role of some clinical factors in predicting cognitive outcome in a group of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients, with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) lower than 8 and duration of unconsciousness for at least 15 days (prolonged coma). METHOD: A consecutive sample of 25 survivors of severe TBI attending the Physical and Cognitive Rehabilitation program participated in this study. The neuropsychological test battery included: Word-list Learning, Prose recall, Rey Figure Delayed recall, Word fluency, Raven's Progressive Matrices' 47. The clinical variables evaluated in correlation with the neuropsychological outcome were the following: age, duration of unconsciousness, duration of post-traumatic amnesia, interval from head trauma to neuropsychological evaluation, interval from head trauma to recovery of oral feeding, and finally interval from head trauma to first verbal communication. FINDINGS: The clinical variable with a significant predictive value on most neuropsychological scores was the interval from head trauma to the recovery of oral feeding. CONCLUSIONS: If this result is confirmed in larger samples, time interval of oral feeding recovery from head trauma should be considered as a possible predictor of neuropsychological outcome in TBI patients with prolonged coma.

Improvement in the information content of the Glasgow Coma Scale for the prediction of full cognitive recovery after head injury using fuzzy logic.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to modify the existing Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) into a fuzzy GCS by using fuzzy information representation and fuzzy inferencing. The study compared the information content of the existing GCS with the new fuzzy GCS for prediction of full cognitive recovery in patients with head injury. METHODS: A record-based study was conducted at the Government Medical College and Hospital, a tertiary care facility in Nagpur, India. The study, which covered the period from January 1 to December 31, 1997, included 253 patients with head injuries. Opinions of 17 clinical experts who routinely deal with head injury cases were used for the construction of the fuzzy GCS. RESULTS: By using the max operator for summarization, eye, motor, and verbal stimuli were all significantly associated with the possibility of full cognitive recovery with the fuzzy GCS (P < .001). Nonspecificity of the classical GCS, the min-operated fuzzy GCS, and the max-operated fuzzy GCS was comparable. A reduction in Shannon entropy was maximum with the max-operated fuzzy GCS. Min-operated fuzzy GCS better predicted a lack of full cognitive recovery. CONCLUSIONS: Fuzzy GCS substantially improves the information content for prediction of the possibility of full cognitive recovery after head injury. Eye, motor, and verbal stimuli all uniquely and significantly contribute to prediction of this possibility. We recommend the use of fuzzy GCS for prediction of the possibility of full cognitive recovery in patients with head injuries.