Citation

Kurtz JE, Putnam SH, Stone C. J. Head Trauma Rehabil. 1998; 13(3): 1-14.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085-1699, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9582175

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that changes in personality traits are evident after traumatic brain injury (TBI) using current models of normal adult personality variation. DESIGN: Comparison of inception cohort and control group at two measurement occasions. SETTING: A large urban academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Retrospective personality assessments were obtained from significant others of 21 TBI patients within 30 days of injury and at 6-month follow-up and from a control group of significant others of 25 persons without neurological history twice over a 6-month interval. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Five scales-Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness-from the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R), Form R, and an observer rating scale for retrospective estimates of change (REC). RESULTS: Significant score changes were found for only one of the five trait domains in the patient sample; controls showed minimal changes overall. Patients' Extraversion scores declined to average levels at 6-month follow-up, diminishing premorbid differences between patients and controls on this dimension. Subjective change estimates made by raters after follow-up reflected perceptions of increased neuroticism in patients that were inconsistent with the serial NEO PI-R data the raters provided. CONCLUSIONS: The absence of systematic changes in personality trait scores among the patients cautions against presuming that such changes account for the behavior of TBI patients.

Language: en