Affiliations: [a] Department of Psychology, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia | [b] Department of Psychology, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Nigel V. Marsh, Department of Psychology, Sunway University, No. 5 Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Tel.: +6 03 7491 8622; Fax: +6 03 5635 8633; E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: OBJECTIVE:To describe the long-term prevalence and severity of cognitive deficits following significant (i.e., ventilation required for >24 hours) traumatic brain injury. To assess a comprehensive range of cognitive functions using psychometric measures with established normative, reliability, and validity data. METHODS:A group of 71 adults was assessed at approximately five years (mean = 66 months) following injury. Assessment of cognitive functioning covered the domains of intelligence, attention, verbal and visual memory, visual-spatial construction, and executive functions. RESULTS:Impairment was evident across all domains but prevalence varied both within and between domains. Across aspects of intelligence clinical impairment ranged from 8–25% , attention 39–62% , verbal memory 16–46% , visual memory 23–51% , visual-spatial construction 38% , and executive functions (verbal fluency) 13% . In addition, 3–23% of performances across the measures were in the borderline range, suggesting a high prevalence of subclinical deficit. CONCLUSIONS:Although the prevalence of impairment may vary across cognitive domains, long-term follow-up documented deficits in all six domains. These findings provide further evidence that while improvement of cognitive functioning following significant traumatic brain injury may be possible, recovery of function is unlikely.
