Changes in Thinking and Social Skills Five Years after Traumatic Brain Injury

Past Studies

Past Studies show that a traumatic brain injury can cause changes in the way individuals think and the way they behave in social situations. Individuals can take a long time to regain these skills. Improvements appear to be made more quickly during the first year after injury. Researchers have found that individuals can make improvements after the first year, but they do not know exactly what types of changes in social and thinking skills take place over time.

This Study

This study examined the five-year recovery records of 292 individuals with traumatic brain injury from the TBI Model Systems Database. The researchers compared the individual’s Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores from one year to five years after the date of injury. The FIM is an assessment used by clinicians to rate, record, and measure an individual’s ability to perform activities of daily living. The FIM score is based on the clinician’s observation of the individual performing basic life tasks such as remembering things, solving problems, and socializing with others. The researchers compared areas of the FIM scores for years one to five. They found for cognitive (thinking) skills, 26% of the individuals improved, 61% stayed the same, and 14% became worse from year one to year five. Assessing the ability to communicate with others, 19% of the individuals improved, 68% stayed the same, and 13% became worse. For socialization skills, 12% of the individuals improved, 76% remained the same, and 11% became worse. For memory and problem-solving skills, 34% of the individuals improved, 48% stayed the same, and 19% became worse. The individuals appeared to make the most improvement over five years in the areas of memory and problem-solving skills. They appeared to have the biggest decline withsocial interaction abilities. Overall, between 50% and 75% of the individuals did not appear to make meaningful changes over the course of five years.

Who May Be Affected By These Findings

Individuals with traumatic brain injuries and their loved ones, healthcare providers, insurers, and researchers

Caveats

An individual’s age at the time of injury was a factor associated with improvements in communication skills. There were few individual factors for predicting the loss of skills.

Bottom Line

In this study, between 50% and 75% of the individuals with traumatic brain injury did not appear to make meaningful changes in thinking and social skills over a period of five years. Overall, for individuals who did experience changes, more appeared to make improvements than became worse.

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