Psychopathological symptomatology in brain-injured patients before and after a rehabilitation program

The Symptom Checklist-90 revised (SCL-90-R) was used to evaluate subjective experience of psychopathological symptomatology in 30 patients before and after an intensive four-month neuropsychological rehabilitation program and again one year after completion of the program. The patients were all adults and had suffered acute brain injury as a result of head injury (37%), cerebro vascular accident (37%), anoxia (16%) or other causes (10%). Most had entered the program within two years after injury and at that time they showed slight to moderate elevation on all ten scales of the SCL-90-R. At program completion eight of the scales showed significant or near significant reductions. There were only small and non-significant changes in the scales between program completion and one year follow-up. Among the individual items of the SCL-90-R, the most common complaints related to cognitive difficulties and depression. The same pattern of sustained improvement was largely found for these items. Overall the results suggest, first, that the subjectively perceived distress in the brain-injured patient is diminished by the rehabilitation program, and second, that this reduction sustained at least up to one year following the completion of the program.