EFFECTS OF HEADACHES DURING NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING OF MILD HEAD-INJURY PATIENTS

The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) were administered to 37 mild head injury patients, whose headache activity was rated at the time o f testing. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) compared each of the 11 LNNB scores of patients with severe headache, mild headache, and n o headache. The results revealed no significant differences on varied neuropsychological tests between the three headache groups. Similar an alyses of the 13 MMPI scores also indicated no significant differences between the three headache groups across various psychoemotional meas ures. The results are consistent with previous research and suggest th at headaches do not affect the performance of mild head injury patient s on varied neuropsychological tests requiring concentration and immed iate memory, but because of the small number of patients in this study the findings should be considered tentative.