Neurobehavioral manifestations following closed head injury

This study was designed to examine neurobehavioral sequelae following closed head injuries. It adapted the Neurobehavioral Rating Scale (NRS) which was designed by Harvey S. Levin in 1987. The scale has been proven to be valid and reliable in previous Western studies and was translated by the authors into Mandarin with the consent of its designer. A total of 335 cases of closed head injury in eight major hospitals in Taipei were studied. The main findings obtained from this preliminary study were: 1) the correlation coefficients between raters ranged from 0.749 to 0.956, manifesting satisfactory reliability; 2) seven factors were obtained through factorial analysis of NRS, explaining 65.5% of the variance; and 3) significant differences in neurobehavioral change were found in patients with various degrees of severity and various types of head injuries. The results demonstrate that NRS is applicable to Chinese patients. Possible modification as well as elaboration of this scale is suggested.