TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY IN CHILDHOOD - INTELLECTUAL, BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL OUTCOME INTO ADULTHOOD

In order to obtain indicative data regarding intellectual, behavioural and social outcome into adulthood oi subjects with a history of child hood head injury (CHI), twenty adults were selected who had been refer red to the Neuropsychology Unit at the University of Parma at the: tim e of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) at an age between 8 and 14 years. The level of intellectual and behavioural impairment was determined an d rated by WISC and WAIS IQa and by the frequency of maladjustive beha viour. GOS score and Barthel index were used to detect the level of di sability. Social adjustment and community integration were determined by the Social Adjustment Scale (SAS) and the Community Integration Que stionnaire (CIQ) respectively. Results indicate that (1) subjects who suffer a severe CHI present a higher pre-injury incidence of character disturbances than the normal population and injury-related difficulti es to socialize which persist long-term and add to other problems; (2) even though intellectual and functional sequelae are frequent in thes e children in adulthood and do not improve in their correlation to age , these do not appear to be the prevailing problems and (3) the prevai ling problems seem to be social maladjustment and poor quality of life , which art: still present several years post-injury and seem to be re lated to behavioural and psychosocial disorders in spite of an increas ed ADL-functioning. This has already been clearly demonstrated in the case of adulthood trauma.