Abstract
IntroductionIndividuals with brain injuries experience cognitive and emotional changes that have long-lasting impacts on everyday life. In the context of rehabilitation, surveys have stressed the importance of compensating for memory disturbances to ease the impact of disorders on day-to-day autonomy. Despite extensive research on the nature of neurocognitive impairments following brain injury, few studies have looked at patients’ perceptions of these day-to-day compensations. This study examines these perceptions; in particular, what brain-injured people believe they do to compensate for memory deficiencies in everyday life. It also investigates the determinants of reported compensation strategies (age, gender, perceived stress, change awareness and motivation to succeed).MethodsEighty patients and 80 controls completed the French Memory Compensation Questionnaire, a self-report measure of everyday memory compensation. Five forms of compensation were investigated: External and Internal strategies, Reliance on social help, and investments in Time and Effort, along with two general factors: the degree of importance attached to Success (motivation) and perceptions of Change. Participants also completed measures of demographic and emotional aspects that may affect everyday compensation perceptions.ResultsThe brain-injured group reported significantly more frequent use of memory compensation strategies than controls, with the exception of External aids. Large effects were observed for Reliance and Effort. Demographic, motivation and perception of change determinants were found to have different effects depending on the compensation strategy, and mediated the direct effect of brain injury on reported compensation.ConclusionClinical and rehabilitation neuropsychologists often seek to have a better sense of how their patients perceive their compensatory behaviors. In practice, such an understanding is needed to help select appropriate methods and improve the long-term impact of rehabilitation programs: memory rehabilitation will fail if neuropsychologists do not deal, first and foremost, with the emotional and metacognitive issues surrounding traumatic brain injury (TBI), rather than focusing on cognitive efficiency.
Highlights
Individuals with brain injuries experience cognitive and emotional changes that have long-lasting impacts on everyday life
Stress is a common experience of Traumatic brain injury (TBI) (Walsh et al, 2020). de Frias et al (2003) demonstrated that anxiety was robustly related to an increase in self-reported use of compensatory strategies
Persons with brain injury “sometimes” engaged in internal strategies, while this choice was less prevalent among the control group (CG)
Summary
Individuals with brain injuries experience cognitive and emotional changes that have long-lasting impacts on everyday life. This study examines these perceptions; in particular, what brain-injured people believe they do to compensate for memory deficiencies in everyday life It investigates the determinants of reported compensation strategies (age, gender, perceived stress, change awareness and motivation to succeed). Among the most commonly reported symptoms are changes in retrospective and prospective memory functioning (Goldstein and Levin, 1996; Kinsella et al, 1996; Groot et al, 2002; Louda et al, 2007; Roche et al, 2007; Fish et al, 2010; Martin et al, 2013) These difficulties clearly degrade the quality of life of victims and increase the risk of developing further disabilities in the long term (Bach-y-Rita and Bach-y-Rita, 1990; Cicerone et al, 2000). According to de Frias et al (2003), those memory compensation correlates “may serve as a key to identifying important resources that may prolong functional competence and successful cognitive aging” (p. 14)
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