A systematic review of mood and depression measures in people with severe cognitive and communication impairments following acquired brain injury.

12 papers did not fully specify severity, and many included mixed severity populations, so the evidence does not firmly show how these measures perform for people with severe cognitive and communication impairments. The review could not pool results because the populations and gold standards varied widely. Many included studies were at high risk of bias because of small samples, missing method details, inappropriate statistical methods, inadequate time intervals between repeat measures, or subgroup comparison bias. All screening and extraction were done by one researcher, with a second reviewer checking only a randomly selected 10% of screening. Some measures were administered with adaptations, such as reading items aloud or prompting, which may change their validity. Severity was often based on acute injury markers rather than ongoing cognitive and communication impairment. The two tentatively recommended observer measures were supported by a small stroke aphasia sample of 25 patients.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and no direct financial support for the research, authorship, or publication. The review was part of a PhD project funded by the Francis and Augustus Newman Foundation, and the author had a PhD fellowship with the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability.

Do not conclude that the SADQ-10 or ADRS is validated for all adults with severe cognitive and communication impairments after brain injury. The recommendation comes from a small stroke aphasia study of 25 patients, and no self-report measure met criteria for this population.