PREVALENCE OF IMPAIRMENTS 5 YEARS AFTER A HEAD-INJURY, AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH DISABILITIES AND OUTCOME

To determine what consequences cognitive, behavioural or somatic impai rments had on disabilities and recovery after a head injury (HI), a po pulation-based sample of 231 adult patients was studied 5 years after an HI. Eighty lower-limb-injured (LLI) patients were considered as con trols. Sixty-four LLI and 176 HI patients were reviewed (114 minor, 35 moderate, and 27 severe HI). Prevalence values of headaches (44-54%), dizziness (26-37%), and anxiety (47-63%) were not significantly diffe rent in the three HI severity groups, but were significantly lower in patients with an isolated limb injury (12-15%). Memory problems and de pressive mood increased with injury severity. Mental impairments were frequent in severe HI patients (18-40% of patients). In minor and mode rate HI patients, most disabilities were related to associated injurie s. According to the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS), recovery was not cons idered as good because of somatic, behavioural or cognitive complaints in 2.5%, 5.7% and 59.2% of surviving patients in each of the above HI groups. Somatic or behavioural complaints may have considerable conse quences in some minor HI patients, and the long-term management of cer tain patients needs improvement because these impairments are misunder stood.