A MULTICENTER INVESTIGATION OF NEUROBEHAVIORAL OUTCOME AFTER TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

Outcome of 295 rehabilitation patients with mild, moderate, and severe brain injury was investigated prospectively at five regional medical centers using the Neurobehavioral Rating Scale. Mean factor scale scor es were generally low, with the cognition mean highest and the excitem ent mean lowest. Regardless of scale, the most significant neurobehavi oral difficulties were related to memory, insight, attention, alertnes s, fatigue, and blunted affect. Conversely, problems rated as least se vere included hallucinations, guilt, excitement and lability of mood. Approximately 9% of the sample had at least a moderate problem with ag itation, an item on the excitement scale. The general pattern of mean factor scale elevations was consistent with other studies. No relation ship was found between injury severity and neurobehavioral characteris tics. The relatively low incidence of neurobehavioral problems may ref lect recovery and effective interdisciplinary management.