Abstract for presentation at 6th World Congress on Brain Injury

Assessing Severity of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Using Word Recall and Information Processing

  • Dr Veronica De Monte, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia
  • Prof Gina Geffen, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia
  • Miss Bronwyn Massavelli, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia

    • Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether selected psychometric tests could be used to grade severity of mTBI.
    Method: 90 patients presenting with mTBI to a hospital emergency department completed a word recall test, a spoken version of the Speed of Comprehension test and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (Digit Symbol), within 24 hours of injury. These patients were divided into “more severe” (N = 51) and “less severe” (N = 49) groups, based on the presence or absence of PTA at the time of testing. PTA was measured with an eight-item orientation scale.
    Results: Patients in the more severe group recalled fewer words immediately and after a delay, and completed fewer symbols in 90 seconds on the Digit Symbol than patients with patients in the less severe group. Furthermore, for patients in the more severe group, the number of orientation questions correctly answered correlated with number of sentences judged (r = .30), Digit Symbol score (r = .20) and a total standardised score from all tests (r = .24).
    Conclusions: These results indicate that for individuals with more severe mTBI, speed of information processing and verbal memory are impaired in addition to orientation. A single brief administration of selected orientation questions and tests of speed of information processing and verbal memory may be sufficient to classify mTBI cases into two broad categories of severity.

    Conference Organiser - ICMS Pty Ltd