Auditory deficits postconcussion (Vander Werff & Rieger, 2019)

Purpose: This study examined auditory deficits and symptom reporting in individuals with long-term postconcussion symptoms following a single mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) compared to age- and gender-matched controls without a history of mTBI.Method: Case history interviews, symptom questionnaires, and a battery of central auditory and neuropsychological tests were administered to 2 groups. The mTBI group was a civilian population recruited from a local concussion management program who were seeking rehabilitation for postconcussion-related problems in a postacute period between 3 and 18 months following injury. Symptom validity testing was included to assess the rate of possible insufficient test effort and its influence on scores for all outcome measures. Analyses of group differences in test scores were performed both with and without the participants who showed insufficient test effort. Rates of symptom reporting, correlations among symptoms and behavioral test outcomes, and the relationships between auditory and cognitive test performance were analyzed.Results: The mTBI group reported a high rate of auditory symptoms and general postconcussion symptoms. Performance on neuropsychological tests of cognitive function showed some differences in raw scores between groups, but when effort was considered, there were no significant differences in the rate of abnormal performance between groups. In contrast, there were significant differences in both raw scores and the rate of abnormal performance between groups for some auditory tests when only considering participants with sufficient effort. Auditory symptoms were strongly correlated with other general postconcussion symptoms.Conclusions: Significant auditory symptoms and evidence of long-term central auditory dysfunction were found in a subset of individuals who had chronic postconcussion symptoms after a single mTBI unrelated to blast trauma. The rate of abnormal performance on auditory behavioral tests exceeded the rate of abnormal performance on tests of cognitive function.Supplemental Material S1. Injury characteristics for the participants in the mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) group (n = 32).Vander Werff, K. R., & Rieger, B. (2019). Auditory and cognitive behavioral performance deficits and symptom reporting in postconcussion syndrome following mild traumatic brain injury. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62, 2501–2518. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-H-18-0281

本研究旨在探讨单一轻度颅脑损伤（mTBI）后长期存在脑震荡症状个体在听觉缺陷和症状报告方面的表现，并将其与无mTBI病史的年龄和性别匹配的对照组进行比较。研究方法包括病例史访谈、症状问卷以及一系列中枢听觉和神经心理学测试，对两组参与者进行评估。mTBI组由当地脑震荡管理计划中招募的平民组成，他们在受伤后3至18个月的急性后期寻求康复以解决脑震荡相关的问题。为了评估可能的测试努力不足的比率及其对所有结果指标的影响，研究还包括了症状效度测试。在考虑和未考虑表现出不足测试努力的参与者的情况下，对两组测试分数的组间差异进行了分析。分析了症状报告的比率、症状之间及行为测试结果之间的相关性，以及听觉和认知测试表现之间的关系。结果显示，mTBI组报告了高比率的听觉症状和一般脑震荡症状。认知功能神经心理学测试的原始分数在两组之间显示出一些差异，但考虑努力程度后，两组之间异常表现的比率没有显著差异。然而，仅考虑表现出足够努力的参与者时，某些听觉测试的原始分数和异常表现比率在两组之间存在显著差异。听觉症状与其他一般脑震荡症状呈强相关性。结论：在单一非爆炸创伤性mTBI后出现慢性脑震荡症状的个体中，发现存在显著的听觉症状和长期中枢听觉功能障碍的证据。听觉行为测试异常表现的比率超过了认知功能测试的异常表现比率。补充材料S1：轻度颅脑损伤（mTBI）组参与者的损伤特征（n = 32）。Vander Werff, K. R. & Rieger, B. (2019). 轻度颅脑损伤后脑震荡综合征的听觉和认知行为表现缺陷及症状报告。言语、语言和听力研究杂志，62，2501–2518. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-H-18-0281