Lack of Awareness in Tbi and Related Factors

Abstract

Our purpose was to investigate the influence of several factors in the manifestation of impaired awareness following brain injury. We focused on the following factors, at one side the brain injury hemispheric side (right or left) and its neuroanatomical location, and on the other hand, the relation between initial severity and time post-injury. Participants were 86 patients with brain injury and their relatives recruited from the Brain Damage Unity, Beata M.a Ana de Jesús Hospital. All of them were administered the questionnaire «patient competency rating scale». Assessment data showed that 66% of the patients perceived their behavioural abilities as more effective than their families' valuation. Lack of awareness did not correlate with injury location, but so with injury initial severity, sustaining after the following year.