Cognitive and neurobehavioral functioning after mild versus moderate traumatic brain injury in older adults

This study evaluated the early cognitive and neurobehavioral outcomes of ol der adults with mild versus moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI). Thirty-f ive patients who were age 50 years and older and sustained mild or moderate TBI were prospectively recruited from acute care hospitals. Patients were administered cognitive and neurobehavioral measures up to 2 months post-inj ury. Demographically comparable control participants received the same meas ures. Patients and controls did not have previous histories of substance ab use, neuropsychiatric disturbance, dementia, or neurologic illness. Moderat e TBI patients performed significantly poorer than mild TBI patients and co ntrols on most cognitive measures, whereas the mild patients performed comp arably to controls. In contrast, both mild and moderate patients exhibited significantly greater depression and anxiety/somatic concern than controls. The results indicate that the classification of TBI as mild versus moderat e is prognostically meaningful as applied to older adults. The findings ext end previous investigations in young adults by demonstrating a relatively g ood cognitive outcome on objective measures, but subjective complaints afte r a single, uncomplicated mild TBI in older persons.