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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian Journal of Neurotrauma 2021; 18(01): 38-44
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1717214
Original Article

Traumatic Brain Injury: Effect of Litigation Status on Executive Functioning—A Pilot Study

Simi Prakash K.
1   Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences, Karnataka, India
,
Rajakumari P. Reddy 
2   Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences, Karnataka, India
,
Anna R. Mathulla 
3   Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences, Karnataka, India
,
Jamuna Rajeswaran
3   Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences, Karnataka, India
,
Dhaval P. Shukla
4   Neurosurgery, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences, Karnataka, India
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Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with a wide range of physiological, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive sequelae. Litigation status is one of the many factors that has an impact on recovery. The aim of this study was to compare executive functions, postconcussion, and depressive symptoms in TBI patients with and without litigation. A sample of 30 patients with TBI, 15 patients with litigation (medicolegal case [MLC]), and 15 without litigation (non-MLC) was assessed. The tools used were sociodemographic and clinical proforma, executive function tests, Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptom Questionnaire, and Beck Depression Inventory. Assessment revealed that more than 50% of patients showed deficits in category fluency, set shifting, and concept formation. The MLC group showed significant impairment on verbal working memory in comparison to the non-MLC group. The performance of both groups was comparable on tests of semantic fluency, visuospatial working memory, concept formation, set shifting, planning, and response inhibition. The MLC group showed more verbal working memory deficits in the absence of significant postconcussion and depressive symptoms on self-report measures.

Keywords

executive functions - traumatic brain injury - cognitive impairment - working memory - litigation status


Publication History

Article published online:
05 October 2020

© 2020. Neurotrauma Society of India. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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