Acute oxygen deprivation: neuropsychological profiles and implications for rehabilitation.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate areas of neuropsychological functioning in severe anoxia survivors that have received little prior attention but that have significant implications for rehabilitation.


METHODS
Residents of a long-term neurobehavioural rehabilitation facility were administered comprehensive neuropsychological protocols. Areas assessed were arousal and attention, executive abilities, reasoning, language, visuospatial abilities, motor, praxis, memory, affective regulation, and insight into deficits.


RESULTS
Subjects were impaired in all areas except in performing automatized tasks. Areas of dysfunction not previously emphasized included praxis, affective regulation, and verbal fluency.


CONCLUSIONS
Areas of compromise not previously emphasized were identified. Their routine assessment can assist rehabilitation professionals in better serving anoxic encephalopathy survivors, particularly those with profound behavioural dysregulation.
Armengol
C G
CG
Counseling and Applied Educational Psychology Department, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA. cgarmengol@yahoo.com
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D002534:Hypoxia, Brain / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008606:Mental Processes; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012718:Set, Psychology