A-114 Neurocognitive Correlates of Persistent Post-Concussion Syndrome in Youth

Abstract

\n \n \n In the U.S., youths account for most annual mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) cases. Often mTBI patients experience impairing symptoms that affect several domains of functioning, typically these symptoms remit within a month though many patients will experience impairing symptoms that persist for greater than three months. Due to the current difficulties in diagnosing this condition in a standardized way, the current study aims to clarify the cognitive profiles of persistent post-concussion syndrome (PPCS) in youth patients.\n \n \n \n 30 youths between the ages of 8 and 18\xa0years participated. 15 youths with mTBI symptoms for greater than three months were recruited from a mTBI treatment clinic. An additional 15 youths without a mTBI history were recruited as a control group. All participants underwent cognitive testing using the standard Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities battery. Logistic regression analyses explored the importance of cognitive processing speed and working memory for identifying youth patients with PPCS. Further exploratory analyses were conducted to clarify additional cognitive domains that may be impacted by PPCS.\n \n \n \n Findings suggest processing speed and working memory abilities alone are not adequate for identifying patients with PPCS and measures of processing speed, fluid reasoning, working memory, and long-term retrieval may be important to consider when differentially diagnosing PPCS.\n \n \n \n More research is needed to appropriately identify and validate diagnostic practices for PPCS in youth. Our findings provide a basis for future work and suggests neuropsychological batteries that include measures for these four cognitive domains may be valuable for identifying PPCS in youth patients.\n \n