Memory dysfunction in mild aphasics.

The effect of mild aphasia (n = 9), as a result of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH), was evaluated against one matched (sex, age, and education) control group suffering from SAH of unknown origin without aphasia, and against one matched healthy control group. According to aphasia testing (Reinvang & Engvik, 1980), criteria for a classical diagnosis were not met. Therefore, the patients were characterized as mild aphasics: They generally displayed intact audo-verbal comprehension and repetition abilities, and they demonstrated a fluent, spontaneous speech. However, they showed phonemic and semantic paraphasias, with self-corrections; a few patients displayed alexia and agraphia. Memory performance of these three groups was evaluated by a neuropsychological test battery, designed to tap various components of verbal memory function. From the results it was concluded that: (a) Short-term memory is impaired, as regards the phonological loop and the central executive in working memory, whereas maintenance rehearsal is unaffected, given that the demands on phonological coding is minimized, (b) long-term memory is also generally impaired, whereas long-term learning and forgetting by means of subject-performed tasks proceeds within a normal range. Impairments were hypothesized to reflect less efficient central executive functions of working memory, involving generation of less appropriate semantic codes and phonological representations, (c) mildly aphasic patients are not subjectively aware of their own memory deficits, and (d) aphasia classification by means of standard procedures do not sufficiently characterize the nature of a mildy aphasic patient's memory problems.

Traumatic brain injury crisis intervention and family therapy--management and outcome. Brain Injury Treatment and Research Group.

This article presents a model for crisis intervention and family therapy after traumatic brain injury. Our program, firmly rooted in object-relations theory and transactional analysis, included patients and family members (significant others) living within 100 miles from the University Hospital of Umeå. The effects of the interventions were gauged at one and two years after the trauma are presented in terms of agreement/disagreement between the patient and the significant other concerning inter- and intrapersonal relationships as well as through a short case presentation. As a conclusion of our study a point is made to expand the scope of intervention to include also other segments of the social network of the patient.

A program for crisis-intervention after traumatic brain injury.

A model for crisis-intervention and family therapy is presented. Each patient admitted to the neurosurgical wards with a diagnosis of acute cerebral contusion is contacted by one member of the psychotherapeutic team within 10 days. When the patient is psychotherapeutically approachable, he is offered crisis-intervening therapy followed by family therapy when considered appropriate. The effect of the crisis-intervention is gauged one and two years after the trauma. At the same time the treated and non-treated patients' psycho-social functioning is investigated. The preliminary results suggest that patients who participated in the program achieved an overall better adjustment to life after the traumatic brain injury than did those without psychotherapy.