Comparing WAIS-III profiles of traumatic brain injury and chronic pain.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common neuropsychological phenomenon characterized by both behavioural and cognitive sequelae, the most common of which include working memory and information processing deficits. To improve its usefulness as a neuropsychological measure, the newest revision of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, the WAIS-III, developed specific tasks tapping these deficits (e.g., Symbol Search, Letter-Number Sequencing). Despite considerable research examining WAIS performance in TBI sufferers, previous research failed to compare TBI sufferers to other clinical groups with observed processing speed deficits, such as chronic pain sufferers. This study compared the WAIS-III profiles of both mild and moderate-severe TBI to chronic lower back pain (LBP). Results showed no significant difference between the three groups on WAIS-III IQ or Index scores. Within-group analyses revealed that both TBI groups displayed significant processing speed deficits in comparison to other Index scores, whereas the LBP group did not show this pattern. Examination of Symbol Search raw scores revealed no significant group difference.Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2003 .M3245. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 42-03, page: 1059. Adviser: Joe Casey. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2003