title: Assessment of cognitive functions in individuals with post-traumatic symptoms after work-related accidents.
abstract: The investigation of cognitive functions in individuals who developed post-traumatic symptoms after occupational accidents has been overlooked in the relevant literature. The present study was aimed at assessing attention, memory and executive functions in individuals with post-traumatic symptoms after a workplace accident. Moreover, possible presence of emotional interference from trauma-related cues on attentional performance was evaluated. Results showed that injured workers exhibited deficits in perceptual-psychomotor skills, executive functions, attention and concentration abilities, and memory as compared with healthy controls. With regards to emotional interference on attention, injured workers were found to perform significantly worse than controls specifically when exposed to trauma-related pictures. Overall, these findings suggest that post-traumatic symptoms following a workplace accident are associated with several cognitive and emotional dysfunctions, that should be carefully evaluated to help reduce the frequency and the adverse consequences of occupational accidents.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy. giulia.buodo@unipd.it
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Buodo
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghisi
authors.forename: Caterina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Novara
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scozzari
authors.forename: Arianna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Natale
authors.forename: Ezio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sanavio
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Palomba
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology