Abstract

This systematic review explored the psychological adjustment needs of individuals following an acquired brain injury (ABI). Whilst the landscape of rehabilitation in ABI has changed rapidly over the last decade, there is still a lack of emphasis on psychological processes in this area. An electronic search of PsycArticles, PsycINFO, PubMed, JSTOR, and Cochrane Library databases was conducted for records between January 2009 and December 2019 detailing the psychological adjustment needs of individuals in a general ABI population. A total of 17 studies with varying methodologies were initially extracted. Methodological quality was then independently assessed by the three authors, with 14 articles meeting the quality threshold. Across methodologies, key themes emerged in relation to: difficulties adjusting to a new sense of self, the critical nature of social support, and the multifaceted nature of the adjustment process which incorporates many internal and external factors. These results illustrate the importance of psychological factors in ABI rehabilitation and as such highlight that the emphasis on functional outcomes in ABI may be an obstacle to the facilitation of the process of psychological adjustment. This provides justification for a more psychologically informed, holistic approach and inspires further debate as to the fundamental importance of psychological adjustment for individual’s post-ABI.

摘要

本系统综述探讨了获得性脑损伤（ABI）后个体的心理调整需求。尽管 ABI 康复领域在过去十年中发生了迅速变化，但该领域的心理过程仍然缺乏重视。对 PsycArticles、PsycINFO、PubMed、JSTOR 和 Cochrane 图书馆数据库进行了电子检索，以查找 2009 年 1 月至 2019 年 12 月期间详细记录一般 ABI 人群中个人的心理调整需求的记录。最初提取了总共 17 项采用不同方法的研究。随后，三位作者独立评估了方法学质量，其中 14 篇文章达到了质量阈值。在各种方法论中，出现的关键主题涉及：适应新的自我意识的困难、社会支持的关键性质以及包含许多内部和外部因素的调整过程的多方面性质。这些结果说明了心理因素在 ABI 康复中的重要性，因此强调了 ABI 中对功能结果的强调可能会阻碍心理调整过程的促进。这为采取更加心理学的、全面的方法提供了理由，并激发了关于心理调整对个人 ABI 后的根本重要性的进一步辩论。