Cognitive recovery after severe head injury: 2. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale during post-traumatic amnesia

Abstract

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) was administered to two matched groups of severely head-injured patients. The first administration was early in the recovery period, when group I was still in post-traumatic amnesia. The WAIS results for this group were significantly lower than those of group II, who were fully conscious. A follow-up at a later stage of recovery found that group I had substantially caught up with group II on the WAIS. At both administrations the WAIS subtest scores were correlated with clinical data, and changes in the pattern of correlations between PTA and full consciousness suggested that the former represents a qualitatively, and not merely quantitatively, distinct phase of recovery.