Factors affecting cognition and emotion in patients with traumatic brain injury.
Eun Hee Kwak, Soohyun Wi, MinGi Kim and 6 others
PMID 32310194WHAT IT FOUND
Longer loss of consciousness was linked to worse everyday memory and agitation in patients with traumatic brain injury.
Lesion location was linked to executive test performance and mood, but this was an assessment study, not a treatment trial.
Key findings
01A longer period of loss of consciousness was associated with worse everyday memory and more agitated behavior, but not with card sorting executive tests, depression, or anxiety.
02When age was controlled, patients with bilateral brain lesions had higher depression and anxiety scores than some patients with unilateral lesions, while lesion side did not significantly affect executive function or everyday memory overall.
03Patients with frontal lobe lesions performed worse on card sorting measures and showed more agitation than patients without frontal lesions, but everyday memory did not differ significantly.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study assessed patients at one time and did not include people without traumatic brain injury, so it cannot show that these factors caused the impairments. Some lesion groups were small, such as patients with frontal lobe only and left frontal lobe only, so comparisons between lesion locations are unstable. The authors ran many correlations and group comparisons, and several outcomes showed no significant difference, so any single finding should be read cautiously. Patients were assessed from 3 to 36 months after injury, so the results may not apply to acute or very late recovery. The study did not test any rehabilitation treatment, so it cannot support a specific therapy choice.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read lesion location as a cause of specific deficits or as a tool for individual recovery prediction. The study compared groups at one time, did not use a control group, and many tests showed no significant differences.