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Acute oxygen deprivation: neuropsychological profiles and implications for rehabilitation
1Counseling and Applied Educational Psychology Department, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA. cgarmengol@yahoo.com
Objective:
To investigate areas of neuropsychological functioning in severe anoxia survivors that have received little prior attention but that have significant implications for rehabilitation.
Design:
Residents of a long-term neurobehavioural rehabilitation facility were administered comprehensive neuropsychological protocols. Areas assessed were arousal and attention, executive abilities, reasoning, language, visuospatial abilities, motor, praxis, memory, affective regulation, and insight into deficits.
Results:
Subjects were impaired in all areas except in performing automatized tasks. Areas of dysfunction not previously emphasized included praxis, affective regulation, and verbal fluency.
Conclusion:
Areas of compromise not previously emphasized were identified. Their routine assessment can assist rehabilitation professionals in better serving anoxic encephalopathy survivors, particularly those with profound behavioural dysregulation.