Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 24, 2025
Acute and Chronic Tactile Sensory Testing after Spinal Cord Injury in Rats
Published on: April 4, 2012
Cognitive appraisals of disability in persons with traumatic spinal cord injury: a scoping review
Maryam Shabany1,2, Seyed Mohammad Ghodsi3, Roya Habibi Arejan2,4
1Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, Neuroscience Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Study Design:
Scoping review.
Objectives:
To describe the meaning of cognitive appraisals, their relation with outcome. measures, and adapted appraisal scales after Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) in the existing literature.
Methods:
This review was performed according to the Arksey and O'Malley (2005) framework that consisted of five steps: setting the review question, searching the literature, selecting and classifying the studies, charting the data, and summarizing the results. Published articles from 1990 to 16 May 2020 related to cognitive appraisal, persons with traumatic SCI (TSCI), and persons older than 18 years were identified by searching by key terms in four databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase).
Results:
The included studies (n = 26) were categorized into three categories. Categories focused on the meanings of cognitive appraisals following TSCI (i.e., appraisals being complex and context-related, or in general definition how persons with TSCI interpret their disability and how they evaluate the resources available to respond to it), the relationship between cognitive appraisals and physical/psychological/social/ outcomes, and appraisals of disability (including the use of appraisals as a predictor of subsequent positive or negative consequences).
Conclusions:
The results demonstrated that a cognitive appraisal of TSCI is critical to longer-term rehabilitation outcomes. A combination of physical and psychological-based interventions can help to modify negative or dysfunctional appraisals. Cognitive appraisal in TSCI seems to vary from person to person. To predict it and develop a rehabilitation plan, future research needs to focus on the relationship between cognitive appraisal and person-related factors, including demographic characteristics.
