Neuropsychological Assessment of Individuals with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

The cognitive sequelae of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) remain to be clearly delineated. Although the majority of studies have demonstrated deficits on tests of complex attention and working memory, the appropriate clinical tools to be used in an evaluation are still not clearly known. In this study 148 subjects who met the criteria for MTBI were assessed with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, including a measure of personality. Subjects performed significantly worse than normative data on tests of time dependent attention, and on tests of verbal memory. Cognitive performance was found to be related to demographic variables of gender and age, but not to education, educational status, length of loss of consciousness, or length of time post injury. No emotional or personality variable was related to performance on cognitive neuropsychological measures.