Cognitive deficits in patients with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most frequent causes of brain damage. Cognitive deficits reported in the literature after moderate to severe TBI include memory, language, executive functions, attention and information processing speed impairments. However, systematic studies on patients with mild TBI are scarce although neuropsychological changes are present. Objective: To investigate the cognitive functioning of patients with mild to moderate TBI. Method: We evaluated 12 patients with mild to moderate TBI using a comprehensive protocol (PN01) of neuropsychological tests. Results: There were significant deficits of episodic memory including immediate and delayed verbal memory recall, verbal recognition, immediate and delayed visual memory recall, naming, verbal fluency and information processing speed. Conclusion: These results emphasize the importance of comprehensive neuropsychological assessments even in cases of mild TBI in order to identify impaired and preserved functions providing adequate managing including rehabilitation programs for each case. Key words: traumatic brain injury, cognitive deficits, mild to moderate level.Alterações neuropsicológicas em pacientes com traumatismo crânio encefálico levemoderado RESUMO Traumatismo craniencefálico (TCE) é uma das causas mais freqüentes de lesão cerebral. São relatados na literatura déficits cognitivos após TCE moderado-grave relacionados à memória, linguagem, funções executivas, atenção e velocidade de processamento de informações. Estudos em pacientes com TCE leve são escassos embora alterações neuropsicológicas sejam encontradas nestes pacientes. Objetivo: Investigar o funcionamento cognitivo de pacientes com TCE leve e moderado através de um protocolo abrangente (PN01) de testes neuropsicológicos. Método: Foram avaliados 12 pacientes com TCE leve e moderado. Resultados: Foram identificados déficits graves de memória episódica verbal para evocação imediata, tardia e de reconhecimento, de memória episódica visuo-espacial para evocação imediata e tardia, nomeação, fluência verbal nominal e velocidade de processamento de informações. Conclusão: Os resultados do estudo argumentam a favor da importância de avaliação neuropsicológica abrangente mesmo em casos de TCE leve a fim de se identificar funções comprometidas e preservadas, proporcionando condutas e programas de reabilitação adequados a cada caso. Palavras-chave: traumatismo crânio encefálico, déficits cognitivos, grau leve e moderado.

Whiplash Injury and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Differential Effects on Cognitive Functioning?

“…The outcome of the study is compatible with findings from other studies. However, in contrast to previous studies [1,13,16,17,19,[20][21][22][23], the MTBI patients showed no significantly reduced speed of information processing as was evaluated with the PASAT. An overview of the results of this study can be seen in Table 1.…”

“…Besides this, some patients showed also problems with the recognition of recently stored information from memory. Furthermore, mild deficits could also be seen on tests measuring executive functions whereas in most studies visuospatial functioning seemed to be preserved [1,[16][17][18]29,30]. The above described findings with regard to cognitive functioning after MTBI were also presented in a meta-analysis of Belanger et al [3] and Frencham et al [4].…”

“…In MTBI patients, mild impairments in speed of information processing, (sustained, divided, focused and/or alternating) attention and (auditory-verbal and/or visuospatial) memory have been found [1,13,16,17,19,[20][21][22][23]. With regard to memory, most patients displayed deficits concerning the storage of new information into memory and/ or the reproduction of recently learned information from memory.…”

“…With regard to cognitive functioning, WI and MTBI patients often complain of poor attention and memory [7]. Several studies have looked for objective findings concerning cognitive dysfunctions after WI [1,2,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and MTBI [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] and have found the presence of only mild cognitive deficits, if any, in both patient groups, mainly in the domain of attention, information processing and memory.…”

Pharmacotherapy to Improve the Acquired Aphasia following Brain Damages: A Review Study

“…Post-traumatic aphasia has cognitivecommunicative nature. In other words, impairment in cognitive dimensions and executive functions related to frontal and frontolimbic lobe is the most important comorbidities after trauma considered as the infrastructure in patients' communicative and verbal disorders (65)(66)(67)(68)(69). Experimental studies on TBI animal models have shown that following traumatic damage to brain, acetylcholine vesicular transporter declines up to 50% in the basal ganglia of basal forebrain, motor cortex, striatum, nucleus of the thalamus, the hypothalamus, and gigantocellular nucleus of reticular formation.…”