The nature and effects of head trauma are discussed. Among the most common deficits noted are impaired cognition, difficulties in oral and written communication, sensory problems, and marked personality changes. Suggestions are offered for dealing with each type of deficit, such as using alarm clocks and other tools to remind the individual about…

Intended for use by professionals as well as head-injured college students and their families, the text provides basic information about head injuries, brain anatomy, the effects of injury to the various areas of the brain, and the major factors in recovery and rehabilitation. It examines the viability of college attendance for the head-injured…

Studied the dimensions that underlie family coping with head injury by replicating and extending an earlier study. Identified two dimensions: (1) using social support versus cognitive coping; and (2) head injury--focused coping versus family tension management. Results provide additional evidence regarding the structure of family coping across…

The impact of detailed information on closed head injury (CHI) and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) validity scales on malingering psychological symptoms of CHI on the MMPI-2 was studied in an analog experiment with 270 undergraduates. Results suggest the impact of such coaching on simulation of CHI. (SLD)

Investigated self-reported psychosocial adjustment of young adults who received inpatient treatment for severe closed head injuries and were later discharged into the community. Findings from 47 former rehabilitation center patients revealed that 55 percent of subjects seemed to be mildly to severely depressed, based on self-reports. Participants'…

Supported employment was utilized in the vocational rehabilitation of two people with traumatic brain injury and one with a traumatic spinal cord injury. Supported employment was found to yield real work outcomes, though it required substantial amounts of money to return the three patients to relatively low-paying jobs. Funding issues are…

This article on young adults with brain damage in New South Wales (Australia) focuses on epidemiological considerations and implications for management. Jointly planning for provision of services for individuals who have either congenital or acquired brain damage is recommended, in view of their similar needs. (JDD)

A study of 12 patients with left-hemisphere damage (LHD) and aphasia, 10 with right-hemisphere damage (RHD), and 10 controls, sought to identify phonemic and emphatic stress contrasts. Individuals with LHD were unable to identify phonemic stress contrasts with better-than-chance accuracy. Individuals with RHD performed better than those with LHD.…

A study involving 10 adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and 10 controls found subjects had problems with procedural function, descriptive function, cohesion relations, and narrative function. They also showed problems in functional communication and in general pragmatic ability. Discrete problems in comprehension and in presuppositional…

Information was collected on 95 people with mental retardation identified seven years previously as showing severe self-injurious behavior. Seventy-one percent were still showing severe self-injurious behavior. Self-injury status was predicted by a logistical regression model containing three variables: site of injury, reported stability of…

In 1992 the city of Barcelona (Spain) enacted legislation to require moped riders to wear helmets. Interrupted time series analyses with use of a control group found a significant decrease in the number of serious injuries and deaths in the helmet group, supporting the efficacy of the legislation. (SLD)

Describes the variety of possible effects of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) on early childhood development in the cognitive, language, social-emotional, motor, and adaptive domains. Suggests interventions which can assist young survivors and their families. Suggests that more long-term, intensive studies be conducted on the short- and long-term…

Ten cerebellar patients were compared to 10 control subjects on a verbal working memory task in which the phonological similarity of the words to be remembered and their modality of presentation were manipulated. Cerebellar patients demonstrated a reduction of the phonological similarity effect relative to controls. Further, this reduction did not…

We examine whether children with early unilateral brain injury show an IQ decline over the course of development. Fifteen brain injured children were administered an IQ test once before age 7 and again several years later. Post-7 IQ scores were significantly lower than pre-7 IQ scores. In addition, pre-7 IQ scores were lower for children with…

We asked 22 right brain-damaged (RBD) patients and 11 elderly healthy controls to perform hand-pointing movements to free-field unseen sounds, while modulating two non-auditory variables: the initial position of the responding hand (left, centre or right) and the presence or absence of task-irrelevant ambient vision. RBD patients suffering from…