ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the frequency of cognitive deficits in the survivors of traumatic frontal lobe injury of mild to moderate severity
Study Design: Mix method study
Place and Duration of Study: Nishter Hospital Multan, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur and Sheikh Zaid Hospital Rahim Yar Khan, from Sep 2010 to Jun 2011
Material and Methods: The sample consisted of 55 participants. Fifteen of these were taken from healthy population with the age range of 20-30 years [Mean = 25.7 +/- SD = 4.6] and 40 participants were medically documented patients of frontal lobe injury of mild [20] to moderate [20] severity. The age range of mild traumatic frontal lobe injury patients was 20-32 years [Mean= 26.5 +/- SD = 4.9]. The age range of moderate severity patients was also 20-32 years [Mean= 26.4 +/- SD = 5.0]. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale revised and case history interview were administered to determine cognitive deficits following traumatic frontal lobe injury
Results: Statistical test, one way analysis was used to compare the performance of all these three [control, mild and moderate] groups. Results of present study reflected that cognitive deficits like memory deficits, language problems, trouble in concentrating and difficulty in planning are the major consequences of traumatic frontal lobe injury
Conclusion: To conclude, frontal lobe injury patients not only showed poor performance in clinically-driven structured and comprehensive memory tests when they were compared with healthy people but their performance also varied according to the severity of injury