Prolonged recovery of memory functioning after mild traumatic brain injury in adolescent athletes.

OBJECT: The current body of sports-related concussion literature is hampered by a lack of research conducted in high school athletes. Accordingly, the authors sought to examine the neuropsychological deficits and recovery patterns after concussive injuries in this population. METHODS: Participants included 419 male and female athletes with a mean age of 15.69 years who underwent baseline testing of their neuropsychological functioning prior to their sports season. Fourteen participants sustained an in-season concussion and were serially reassessed at ~2.5, 6, and 10 days postinjury. Fourteen uninjured matched control participants were also reassessed at the end of the school year. RESULTS: Individuals who sustained in-season concussions demonstrated impairments in reaction time, processing speed, and had delayed memory functioning. Although reaction time and processing speed deficits returned to baseline levels by ~6 days postinjury, participants continued to show memory impairments up to 7 days postinjury. Memory impairments were found to resolve by Day 10, however. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study suggest that high school athletes demonstrate prolonged memory dysfunction compared with college athletes, and should therefore be treated more conservatively.

Official position of the military TBI task force on the role of neuropsychology and rehabilitation psychology in the evaluation, management, and research of military veterans with traumatic brain injury.

This Position Statement is a summary of the literature and learning regarding current issues raised by the occurrence, treatment, and study of traumatic brain injury in military service members and veterans. The Report has been approved by the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN), Divisions 40 (Neuropsychology) and 22 (Rehabilitation Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN), with the goal of providing information of relevance on an important public policy matter within their respective areas of expertise. The Report is not intended to establish guidelines or standards for the professional practice of psychology, nor has it been adopted as official policy by the American Psychological Association or any other division or subunit of APA.

Mild traumatic brain injury and anxiety sequelae: a review of the literature.

There is scattered but significant psychological and neuropsychological evidence to suggest that mild traumatic brain injury (mild TBI) plays a notable role in the emergence and expression of anxiety. Conversely, there is also empirical evidence to indicate that anxiety may exert a pronounced impact on the prognosis and course of recovery of an individual who has sustained a mild TBI. Although the relationship between mild TBI and anxiety remains unclear, the present body of research attempts to elucidate a number of aspects regarding this topic. Overall, the mild TBI research is rife with inconsistencies concerning prevalence rates, the magnitude and implications of this issue and, in the case of PTSD, even whether certain diagnoses can exist at all. This review obviates the need for greater consistencies across studies, especially between varying disciplines, and calls for a shift from studies overly focused on categorical classification to those concerned with dimensional conceptualization.

Discriminating between cognitive and supportive group therapies for chronic mental illness.

This descriptive and comparative study employed a Q-sort process to describe common factors of therapy in two group therapies for inpatients with chronic mental illness. While pharmacological treatments for chronic mental illness are prominent, there is growing evidence that cognitive therapy is also efficacious. Groups examined were part of a larger study comparing the added benefits of cognitive versus supportive group therapy to the treatment milieu. In general, items described the therapist's attitudes and behaviors, the participants' attitudes and behaviors, or the group interactions. Results present items that were most and least characteristic of each therapy and items that discriminate between the two modalities. Therapists in both groups demonstrated good therapy skills. However, the cognitive group was described as being more motivated and active than the supportive group, indicating that the groups differed in terms of common as well as specific factors of treatment.