Using the BDI-II, symptoms of depression after TBI fall into three key categories. With time since injury being the only significant predictor of depression following TBI, it appears that the depression could be more of a result of psychosocial factors than neurobiological factors. It was concluded that BDI-II can be useful in identifying symptoms of depression in the early stages following TBI.
The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) has been studied relatively extensively in normal samples, and its theoretically derived index scores have been demonstrated to be useful in the assessment of a variety of clinical conditions. However, examinations of the empirical relationships between individual subtests are limited. The intent of the present study was to explore the component structure of the instrument in a sample of 351 individuals with a diagnosed memory disorder, to examine the impact of demographic factors on these empirically derived components, and to explore differences in performance between diagnostic groups. Findings suggested a three-component solution (Memory, Visuomotor Processing, and Verbal Processing). Demographic variables had relatively small, but significant relationships with various component scores. Significant differences were observed between probable Alzheimer's disease and non-Alzheimer's type dementia groups on the memory component score, but not on other component scores or on RBANS index scores.
The present study examined the relationship between memory and orientation to time, place, and personal and general information, as moderated by age, education, and simple attentional ability. A heterogeneous sample of 312 clinical referrals was divided into four groups, according to delayed memory functioning. Patients with globally good, globally poor, poor visual, and poor auditory memory were at differential risk of being disoriented, with the globally poor memory patients having the greatest risk. Overall, poorly oriented patients were older and less educated, with worse recall of digits backward. Discriminant Function Analysis selected visual and auditory memory and age as predictors of orientation. Normative tables stratified by age and memory performance are presented.
The clinical utility of the Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale (BDS) was compared to that of verbal fluency, the Trail Making Test, and the Stroop Color-Word Test, as well as measures of processing speed/cognitive efficiency and manual dexterity. The ability of these measures to classify 49 TBI patients into frontal versus nonfrontal and mild to moderate versus severe groups was examined. The results showed that the Fluid Intelligence Factor of the BDS improved classifications above and beyond traditional executive measures, but was particularly successful at classifying patients who sustained mild injuries. In contrast, traditional executive instruments were successful at lesion location classifications only among the patients with severe injuries. Severity classifications were successful both for traditional measures of processing speed/cognitive efficiency and for the Motor Programming Factor of the BDS, but only among patients with nonfrontal injuries. These results demonstrate that severity of injury may be an important moderator of tests' sensitivity to frontal lobe involvement.
The relationship between performance on neuropsychological measures and the vocational and independent living functioning of individuals with traumatic brain injury was examined. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) IQ and Stroop Color and Word Test scores differentiated individuals who required no assistance with activities of daily living from those requiring some level of assistance. Only the Stroop Color and Word Test scores differentiated individuals who were competitively employed or engaged in degree-oriented education from those who were unemployed or in sheltered or supported employment. Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) scores did not differentiate these groups.
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