Effect of traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage on neuropsychological profiles and vocational outcome following moderate or severe traumatic brain injury.
OBJECTIVE
Traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage (tSAH) frequently occurs in moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and is related to worse outcome at time of discharge from the acute hospitalization. The current study compared neuropsychological impairment and vocational outcome at 1-year post-injury in patients with and without tSAH.


METHODS
Acute injury, neuroradiological, neuropsychological and vocational data were collected for 100 patients admitted for neurorehabilitation following TBI.


RESULTS
Patients with tSAH had significantly worse vocational outcome than patients without tSAH. On neuropsychological measures, patients with tSAH generally performed worse than patients without tSAH across most neurocognitive domains. However, differences in neuropsychological test performance between patients with and without tSAH reached statistical significance on measures of visuospatial processing, verbal reasoning and mood only.


CONCLUSIONS
The presence of tSAH appears to be associated with worse vocational outcome in survivors of moderate or severe TBI. As such, the presence of tSAH appears to have predictive value with respect to outcome following TBI.
Hanlon
R E
RE
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. r-hanlon@northwestern.edu
Demery
J A
JA
Kuczen
C
C
Kelly
J P
JP
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational; D020206:Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Traumatic / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014796:Visual Perception