Awareness of neurobehavioral deceits and emotional adjustment in acute- and post-acute rehabilitation following traumatic brain injury

• Main Author: Sawchyn, James Matthew
• Other Authors: Mateer, Catherine A.
• Format: Others
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Brain damage; Patients; Rehabilitation
• Online Access: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca//handle/1828/10084

This dissertation examined injury-based and emotional adjustment factors that may influence an individual's self-awareness of neurobehavioral deficits following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Two studies were completed to examine these issues in acute and post-acute rehabilitation settings using the reports of TBI patients and their significant-others. In Study 1, the Patient Competency Rating Scale (PCRS) and Self-Awareness of Deficits Interview were used to assess the patients' awareness of deficit, while the Profile of Mood States and the Grief Experiences Inventory were used to assess emotional adjustment. Six patients and significant-others were followed weekly during the course of inpatient rehabilitation, and were seen approximately one month after their discharge from hospital. While individual variability was observed, most patients reported minor changes in their level of competence and limited emotional distress. The individual perceptions of patients and of significant-others were generally consistent over the course of inpatient care, and variations in patients' emotional adjustment appeared to be reasonable reactions to circumstantial factors. The emotional adjustment of significant-others varied considerably among the individuals assessed, and this variability likely influenced their ratings of the patient. Staff ratings of the patients were also collected, and identified improvements in functional abilities over time. These results suggest that patient awareness is not a prerequisite for rehabilitation success. A lack of applied or practical experiences may also influence patients' ability to accurately rate their self-competence during the acute phase following TBI. Study 2 examined 166 individuals referred for post-acute rehabilitation, using the PCRS and the Katz Adjustment Scale (KAS-R) to assess awareness and emotional adjustment. Patients with a history of moderate and severe TBI showed good awareness of their abilities, based on PCRS Discrepancy Scores, while patients with mild TBI were likely to report greater impairments than observed by significant-others. TBI patients showed significant emotional adjustment difficulties on the KAS-R, regardless of the severity of their injury, and there was a strong positive association between patients' acknowledgement of neurobehavioral problems and ratings of their emotional adjustment. General intellectual ability was also strongly related to patients' report of difficulties, such that low IQ and poor emotional adjustment were associated with low ratings of self-competence. On the other hand, the general location of cerebral trauma was not strongly associated with deficits in awareness. Thus, the nature and severity of TBI appeared to be less important than IQ and emotional adjustment in the post-acute rehabilitation patients, although mildly injured patients are more likely to report neurobehavioral deficits than moderate or severely injured patients. Strengths and weakness of the self-other discrepancy approach to measuring self-awareness were considered, and a robust approach to awareness assessment, based on multiple measures, is recommended. Available options include structured interviews, self-report, clinical observation, or objective testing. Furthermore, the emotional adjustment of the patient appeared to become increasingly salient in the assessment of awareness during the post-acute phase, compared to the acute phase of recovery from TBI, where significant-other adjustment may be quite relevant. === Graduate