Sustained attention in children and adolescents after traumatic brain injury: relation to severity of injury, adaptive functioning, ADHD and social background.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the relationship of child and family psychosocial variables and traumatic brain injury (TBI) severity as it relates to sustained attention (the Paediatric Assessment of Cognitive Efficiency, PACE).


METHODS
Forty-two children and adolescents were recruited and participated in a 2 year longitudinal study to evaluate sustained attention using the computerized testing metric, PACE. More specifically, errors of omission (inattention) and commission (impulsiveness) were measured.


RESULTS
Significant improvement on inattention and impulsiveness were observed over time. High pre-injury psychosocial adversity and low pre-injury adaptive functioning significantly predicted a greater number of inattention errors. Severity of injury predicted the reduction of impulsiveness. Moreover, omission errors immediately after TBI predicted later secondary attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (SADHD, ADHD that emerges after TBI).


CONCLUSIONS
Based on these findings, it is important to consider pre-injury child and family psychosocial characteristics in addition to severity of injury when predicting outcome of TBI in children.
Wassenberg
Renske
R
University of Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Max
Jeffrey E
JE
Lindgren
Scott D
SD
Schatz
Amy
A
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D012923:Social Class