POSTCONCUSSION SYMPTOMS AND COGNITIVE-FUNCTIONING IN POSTTRAUMATIC HEADACHE PATIENTS

Forty-two patients with posttraumatic headache of at least three month s duration following motor vehicle accident completed the Postconcussi on Syndrome Checklist which assessed their experience of 10 commonly r eported cognitive, emotional, and physical symptoms. The patients also completed the Beck Depression Inventory and a brief battery of neurop sychological tests. Results indicated that postconcussion symptoms rem ained quite prevalent among these subjects. More pronounced postconcus sion symptomatology was associated with significantly greater impairme nt on 6 of 13 measures of neuropsychological functioning. Neither seve rity of subjects' postconcussion symptoms nor neuropsychological test performance were affected by litigation status. However, depressed sub jects reported more severe cognitive and emotional symptoms than did n ondepressed subjects. Additional information about postconcussion symp tom prevalence and a description of the relationship between self-repo rted symptoms, cognitive functioning on neuropsychological tests, and depression is provided. The implications of these findings are discuss ed.