Brain Injury review

This article by J Donders and J Nienhuis from the mary Bed hospital in michigan takes a look at the realtionship between traumatic brain injury and the california verbal test.

The performance of 23 patients with moderate-severe traumatic brain injury on the California Verbal Learning Test, Second Edition (CVLT-II; Delis et al., 2000) was compared with that of 23 matched healthy controls to determine whether recall discriminability indices, which take into account both correct target recall and intrusive errors, would provide better diagnostic classification than traditional variables that are based exclusively on correct recall. Patients with traumatic brain injury recalled fewer correct words, and also made more intrusive errors, on CVLT-II short and long delay, free and cued recall trials (p < .02 for all variables after Stepdown Bonferroni correction). However, recall discriminability indices yielded a classification of clinical versus control participants (72%) that was not significantly different from one based on traditional variables (74%). We conclude that CVLT-II recall discriminability indices do not routinely provide an advantage over traditional variables in patients with traumatic brain injury.

The full article can be found via pubmed; Identifier number 17286892

This article is by P Golubchik et al from the Tel aviv university in Israel. It looks at the impact of neurosteroids in the development of psychopathological diseases.

Neurosteroids play a significant role in neurodevelopment and are involved in a wide variety of psychopathological processes. There is accumulating evidence on their role in adult psychopathology, including Alzheimer disease, schizophrenia, mood disorder, anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. Little is known, however, about the possible role of neurosteroids in child and adolescent psychopathology although there is increasing evidence for their critical role from the early stages of brain development until adolescence. In this review we focus on the involvement of neurosteroids in neurodevelopment and mental disorders in children and adolescents. Adequate physiological levels protect the developing neural system from insult and contribute to the regulation of brain organization and function. Neuro steroids may be involved in the pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy of a variety of disorders in children and adolescents, including schizophrenia, depression, eating disorders, aggressive behavior and attention deficit. The complex interaction between neurosteroids, neurodevelopment, life-events, genetics and mental disorders in children and adolescents merits further investigation.

The pubmed identifier for the paper is 17079119

This article on the relationship  of shoulder pain and traumatic brain injury is by J Leung et al from the royal rehabilitation centre in Sydney. 

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and characteristics of shoulder pain in people with traumatic brain injury participating in inpatient rehabilitation and to compare the clinical presentation with that of people with stroke.

DESIGN: A prospective comparative study.

SETTING: Six metropolitan rehabilitation units.

SUBJECTS: Eighty-seven people with traumatic brain injury and 52 people with stroke took part in the study.

MAIN MEASURES: Assessment of shoulder pain, range of motion, strength and function was conducted on admission and, for the subjects with traumatic brain injury, at discharge if rehabilitation exceeded two weeks.

RESULTS: The prevalence of shoulder pain in people with traumatic brain injury was 62%, which was comparable with the 69% of subjects with stroke that experienced shoulder pain (odds ratio 0.72, 95% confidence interval 0.34 -1.5). Fracture in the shoulder complex and passive shoulder external rotation range of motion were the best predictors for shoulder pain after traumatic brain injury. This was different from the subjects with stroke for which the best predictors were passive shoulder flexion range of motion and length of acute hospital stay.

CONCLUSION: There is a relatively high prevalence of shoulder pain after traumatic brain injury. Trauma to the shoulder complex contributes to shoulder pain after traumatic brain injury, making clinical presentation different from people with stroke. The findings support the need for greater attention in the management of shoulder pain after traumatic brain injury.

Pubmed number 17264111