title: Descriptive Halstead-Reitan study of nonimpact mild traumatic brain injury.
abstract: Patients subjected to severe acceleration forces in motor vehicle accidents that met criteria for uncomplicated mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in the absence of direct impact to the head were examined neuropsychologically using the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery. The subjects were litigants and/or insurance claimants for whom there was psychometric evidence of acceptable test effort. The purpose of the study was to provide descriptive neuropsychological data for this particular clinical population. Individual test results were interpreted using inferential methods of level of performance, pathognomonic signs, score patterns, and right-left performance differences. These interpretive strategies yielded group data from which frequencies and percentages of atypical neuropsychological characteristics were calculated. The most salient clinical characteristics involved atypical right-left performance relationships on simple and more complex tests of motor function. Clinical data provided support for the possibility that a minority of nonimpact litigants or insurance claimants that sustain uncomplicated mTBI experience persistent diminishment in some neuropsychological abilities.
authors.affiliation: a Private Practice , Ottawa , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: James Ernest
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Sweeney
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001924:Brain Concussion / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Acceleration forces; Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological test battery; brain injury; concussion; head injury; mTBI; nonimpact