Purpose/objective: Severe brain injury (BI) is a catastrophic event often evolving into a complex chronic and severely disabling condition making activity participation possible only with sustained caregiving. One aspect of building sustainable caregiving is early provision of information about expected outcomes germane to patients and their caregivers. An analysis was conducted to determine whether 2 levels of independence with expressing needs and ideas 1-year after severe BI could be predicted using variables available early after injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpisodic memory is one of the most affected cognitive domains in schizophrenia. First-degree biological relatives of individuals with schizophrenia also have been found to exhibit a similar, but milder, episodic memory deficit. Unlike most studies that focus on the percent of previously presented items recognized, the current investigation sought to further elucidate the nature of memory dysfunction associated with schizophrenia by examining the discrimination of old and new material during recognition (measured by d') to consider false recognition of new items.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To examine the predictive validity of measures of neurobehavioral change derived from the Disorders of Consciousness Scale (DOCS) for predicting return to consciousness 4, 8, and 12 months after severe brain injury (BI).
Design: Prospective observational predictive validity study
Setting: Inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and postrehabilitation residence
Participants: A total of 113 persons with a mean age of 38 +/- 17.8 years who were unconscious for >28 days consecutively after severe BI; 73% (83/113) with traumatic BI and 27% (30/113) with other BI.
Primary Objective: One of the most challenging tasks for clinicians caring for survivors of severe brain injury (BI) is establishing a prognosis, for long-term functional outcome, while the patient is unconscious. The objective of this article is to report findings regarding the prediction of functional outcomes 1-year after severe BI using data available when the patient is unconscious.
Research Design: Longitudinal prognostication study.