Correlations between Cognitive Impairments and Employment Status in Patients with Diffuse Axonal Injury.

Patients with diffuse axonal injury (DAI) may initially present with prominent physical impairments, but their cognitive dysfunctions are more persistent and are attributable to later unemployment. In this study, we analyzed how the findings of early and delayed neuropsychological assessments correlated with employment outcome of patients with DAI. A total of 56 patients with DAI without motor or visual dysfunction were included in this study. The neuropsychological battery consisted of the Wechsler Adult Intelligent Scale - Revised (WAIS-R), Wechsler Memory Scale - Revised (WMS-R), Trail Making Test (TMT), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and Word Fluency Test (WFT). This battery of tests was administered twice in early stage after injury and in later stage. The results of all of the neuropsychological tests improved significantly (P