Effects of Chronic Brain Injury on Quality of Life: A Study in Patients With Left- or Right-Sided Lesion.
Madhushree Chakrabarty, Eliza M Pflieger, Eileen Cardillo and 1 others
PMID 33543061WHAT IT FOUND
People with chronic focal brain injury reported quality of life in 5 areas, and left hemisphere injury was linked to worse perceived cognitive functioning even when standard cognitive tests did not differ.
Key findings
01The analysed sample was 42 patients with chronic unilateral focal brain lesions, and their quality-of-life responses grouped into 5 themes: physical functioning, general health, emotional health, social functioning, and cognitive functioning.
02Left-hemisphere patients reported lower perceived cognitive functioning than right-hemisphere patients, while the groups did not differ significantly on standard neuropsychological tests.
03Perceived physical functioning was predicted by education, lesion size, and age; perceived emotional health was predicted by age.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 42 patients were analysed, after excluding 1 patient with severe communication deficits, 3 with bilateral lesions, and 6 with incomplete data, so the findings are preliminary. The sample was heterogeneous: 64% had stroke, and others had tumor resections, hemorrhages, or ruptured aneurysms, so lesion cause may mix different recovery paths. Patients with moderate or severe aphasia were excluded, so it may not apply to people with major communication impairment. Quality-of-life outcomes were self-report questionnaires, and the study did not measure actual physical function objectively. Sex was unevenly distributed, and lesion subtraction analyses were exploratory and hypothesis-generating.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that left-hemisphere injury causes objective cognitive impairment. The left-hemisphere group reported worse perceived cognitive functioning, but standard neuropsychological tests did not differ significantly, and the study was a small survey of 42 patients.