Neuropsychological rehabilitation after closed head injury in young adults

Cognitive and personality disturbances following severe closed head injury in young adults are associated with poor rehabilitation outcome. Yet systematic programmes for dealing with these disturbances have generally not appeared. The present report briefly describes the Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Program (NRP) at Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma City and the initial outcome data on eighteen closed head injury patients and seventeen untreated controls. Greater improvement in neuropsychological functioning occurred in the NRP patient group on selected variables, but generally the effects were modest. Emotional distress, however, substantially decreased in treated patients. Fifty percent of the NRP patients maintained productivity 75% of the time or more following rehabilitation, compared to 36% of the controls. Treatment successes showed less personality disturbances than treatment failures and better learning and memory scores post-treatment.