NEUROBEHAVIORAL CONSEQUENCES OF CLOSED-HEAD INJURY IN THE ELDERLY

The assessment of neurobehavioural outcome after head injury in older patients (> 60 year old) has met with difficulties, due to the obstacl es in finding subjects who would constitute an appropriate control gro up. In the present study, survivors of closed head injury (CHI) of thi s age group were compared to two control groups: (I) orthopaedic patie nts (OF) who were injured in similar circumstances hut did not sustain head injury and (2) healthy, age-matched volunteers (HC). Compared wi th HC, CHI and OP were impaired on word fluency, memory and reasoning. No differences were found between CHI and the OF. These results may i ndicate that, rather than resulting only from the head injury brought about by falling, the cognitive decline may predate the injury and inc rease the risk of accidents in old age.