DEPRESSION, COGNITION, AND FUNCTIONAL CORRELATES OF RECOVERY OUTCOME AFTER TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

The present study investigated the prevalence and magnitude of depress ive symptomatology in a sample of patients who had sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI) six months earlier. Depression was examined as a f unction of recovery outcome status, and its association with neuropsyc hological functioning, personal competency, and employability was also explored. Subjects were 100 patients who had previously sustained mod erate-to-severe TBI who were enrolled as research subjects in the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center, and 30 matched control subjects who had sustained traumatic injuries other than to the head six months prior to evaluation. The results showed a significant association between de pression and recovery status as measured by the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS). A significant majority of depressed subjects were found in the poorer dos outcome groups (severe and moderate disability), compared t o TBI subjects who had good GOS outcomes, and control subjects. This a ssociation was also reflected in the magnitude of the mean depression scores on two self-report measures of depression. However, no associat ion was found between depression status and performance on the neurops ychological measures. Effects of depression were found only on an exam iner-rated Patient Competency scale, and a metacognition measure based on self-report. These results are discussed in terms of brain injury severity, recovery status, and metacognition issues in TBI and other d isorders.