TITLE:
Absence of Quantitative Improvement in Neuropsychological Profiles in Patients Who Exhibit Moderate Brain Impairment: Comparisons of Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Data (1 through 4 Years Post-Injury)
AUTHORS:
Sandra G. Tiller, Linda S. St-Pierre, Michael A. Persinger
KEYWORDS:
TBI; Neuropsychological Impairment; Test-Retest Reliability; Personality; Electroencephalographic Indicators
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science,
Vol.3 No.2,
May
24,
2013
ABSTRACT:
A total of 127 adult
patients who had sustained an impact of significant mechanical energy to their
skulls during motor vehicle incidents were given thorough neuropsychological,
cognitive and personality assessments between 0.5 years and 4 years after the
event. Cross-sectional analysis indicated no statistically significant
objective changes in patients as a function of yearly intervals. However there
was strong evidence of significant deterioration of neuropsychological proficiency and efficiency between 0.3
to 1.0 years after the injury. A subset (n = 20) of patients who displayed moderately
severe neuropsychological impairment when assessed about 1 year after the
injury showed no statistically significant changes when reassessed about 1.5
years later (2.5 years after the brain trauma). These results challenge the
traditional concept of “recovery” following a traumatic brain injury and indicate that insidious
processes that adversely affect neurocognitive capacity may emerge 0.5 years after the trauma. Post-hoc analysis
indicated that the occurrence of unconsciousness or its duration at the time of the injury minimally affected
the magnitude of subsequent indices of neuropsychological impairment but influenced
the incidence of electroencephalographic theta activity during the years following
the injury.