Behavioral Outcome in Head Injury. Executive Summary

摘要

The purposes of this study were to permit the determination of (1) head injury-related deficits at 1 and 12 months post injury; (2) recovery of function over time; (3) which severity indices are better than others in predicting outcome; (4) screening batteries sensitive to outcomes following head injury; (5) ways to improve the sensitivity of the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) to head injury; and (6) the relationship between neuropsychological and psychosocial function following head injury. To achieve these goals the researchers used a series of existing measures, already developed for the head injured, on a cohort of first-time head trauma patients. The investigators enrolled 102 patients in this study. Because the proposal wanted to determine levels of return to normal function--and, obviously, no premeasures of normal function were available--they proposed an unusual method to achieve some degree of comparison between the injured and uninjured: the use of a group of peers of the patients, matched by age, sex, race, and education who were known to the injured party. The two groups were measured at fixed intervals (1 and 12 months) with a standard set of indices/measures (such as the Halstead-Reitan Battery). The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was also used as a measure of severity for each patient. As noted, the study also tested the SIP in an attempt to improve its sensitivity for head injured patients.