Emotional and pain-related factors in neuropsychological assessment following mild traumatic brain injury.

A critical issue in the field of clinical neuropsychology is the idea that emotional or pain-related factors may compromise the validity of neuropsychological assessment. In this study, 53 individuals suffering from mild traumatic brain injury related to motor vehicle accident injury completed commonly used measures of emotional and pain-related functioning. A battery of commonly used neuropsychological tests, assessing attention, learning and memory, language, visuospatial and visuomotor functions, speeded processing, fine-motor skill, and symptom validity, was administered concurrently. Findings revealed a significant and negative correlation between anxiety and impaired delayed verbal memory, suggesting that as anxiety increased, delayed verbal memory decreased. The results otherwise provided little support for the idea that emotional or pain-related factors are detrimental to neuropsychological test performance following mild traumatic brain injury.