Objective

Traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) has implications in many areas, including cognitive functioning. Findings regarding cognitive problems in people with SCI are inconsistent, presumably due to multiple variables than can affect performance, among them emotional variables. The purpose of the current study was to elucidate cognitive sequalae in some individuals with tSCI with no medical record of brain injury, while taking emotional variables into consideration.

Design

Cross-sectional, with two groups.

Setting

A public rehabilitation center.

Participants

Twenty participants with tSCI at least ten months post injury and twenty non-SCI controls, matched for sex, age, and education.

Intervention

None.

Outcome Measures

A battery of neuropsychological tests tapping executive functions, memory, attention, and naming abilities, in addition to questionnaires assessing depression and distress.

Results

When emotional variables were statistically controlled, participants with tSCI showed higher levels of depression and distress and scored lower than non-SCI control participants on all cognitive tests except naming. Executive functions were found to have the highest effect size, though no specific ability was sensitive enough to differentiate between the groups in a binary logistic regression analysis.

Conclusion

In some individuals with chronic tSCI, lower cognitive ability that is unrelated to emotional distress might result from spinal cord damage and its implications in a population who’s medical records show no indication of brain injury. This highlights the importance of conducting cognitive evaluation following SCI, so that deficits can be effectively addressed during rehabilitation.

中文翻译：

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缺乏脑损伤是否意味着在脊髓损伤中缺乏认知障碍？

目的

创伤性脊髓损伤（tSCI）在许多领域都有影响，包括认知功能。关于SCI患者认知问题的发现不一致，大概是由于多个变量可能影响绩效，其中包括情绪变量。本研究的目的是阐明某些tSCI患者的认知性红斑狼疮，但没有脑损伤的医学记录，同时考虑了情绪变量。

设计

横断面，有两组。

设置

公共康复中心。

参加者

至少在伤后十个月内有20名患有tSCI的参与者和20名非SCI对照，其性别，年龄和教育程度均相匹配。

介入

没有。

结果指标

除了评估抑郁和困扰的问卷之外，还进行了一系列神经心理学测试，挖掘执行功能，记忆力，注意力和命名能力。

结果

当对情绪变量进行统计学控制时，除命名之外，tSCI参与者在所有认知测验中均表现出较高的抑郁和痛苦水平，且得分低于非SCI对照参与者。执行功能被发现具有最大的影响大小，尽管在二元逻辑回归分析中没有一种特殊的功能足够敏感以区分各组。

结论

在一些患有慢性tSCI的个体中，与情绪困扰无关的较低的认知能力可能是脊髓损伤引起的，其对医疗记录没有显示出脑部损伤迹象的人群的影响。这突出了在进行SCI之后进行认知评估的重要性，以便可以在康复过程中有效解决缺陷。