Biomedical subjects

Eleanor Leigh

Publications and source records attributed to Eleanor Leigh.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

The Rivermead Post Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire: a confirmatory factor analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the factor structure of the Rivermead Post Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ) among individuals seen as part of routine follow-up following traumatic brain injury. METHODS: RPQ data from 168 participants was examined (mean age 35.2, SD 14.3; 89% with post traumatic amnesia duration<24 hours) six months after admission to an Accident & Emergency Department following TBI. Structural equation modelling was carried out to evaluate proposed models of the underlying structure of post-concussion symptoms (PCS). RESULTS: The results support the existence of separate cognitive, emotional and somatic factors, although there was a high degree of covariation between the three factors. A two-factor model that collapsed the emotional and somatic factors together showed a similar goodness-of-fit to the data, whilst a one-factor model proved a poor fit. CONCLUSION: The results support the notion of post-concussion symptoms as a collection of associated but at least partially separable cognitive, emotional and somatic symptoms, although questions persist regarding symptom specificity. The use of the RPQ is discussed, and classification bands for use in clinical practice are suggested.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

The size of demand for specialized neuropsychiatry services: rates of referrals to neuropsychiatric services in the South thames region of the United kingdom.

The authors assessed the number of referrals to neuropsychiatry services covering South London, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex (population 6,887,000) over a 2-year period. The average referral rate was 11.2 per 100,000 per population for each year. Geographical distance from the specialist provider strongly affected referral rates, with clinicians in South London making more referrals than those from outside London. Assessment of appropriateness of referrals indicated that more than 86% of referrals were highly appropriate, and thus the higher level of referrals from close proximity cannot be attributed to inappropriate referrals. A survey of clinicians reported lower awareness of services and how to access these services among those clinicians working at a greater distance from the service provider, which likely results in unmet needs. Greater attempts should be made to improve access to neuropsychiatric services for clinicians who do not practice within close proximity of a specialist neuropsychiatry service.

England↗

PubMed2005

Differential constraints on the working memory and reading abilities of individuals with learning difficulties and typically developing children.

This study examined the factors that constrain the working memory span performance and reading ability of individuals with generalized learning difficulties. In the study, 50 individuals with learning difficulties (LD) and 50 typically developing children (TD) matched for reading age completed two working memory span tasks. Participants also completed independent measures of the processing and storage operations involved in each working memory span task and Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices. The results showed that despite an equivalent level of working memory span, the relative importance of the constraints on working memory differed between the groups. In addition, working memory span was not closely related to word recognition or sentence comprehension performance in the LD group. These results suggest that the working memory span performance of LD and TD individuals may reflect different working memory limitations and that individuals with generalized learning difficulties may approach cognitive tasks in a qualitatively different way from that of typically developing individuals.

Child↗

PubMed2005

Mapping the developmental constraints on working memory span performance.

This study investigated the constraints underlying developmental improvements in complex working memory span performance among 120 children of between 6 and 10 years of age. Independent measures of processing efficiency, storage capacity, rehearsal speed, and basic speed of processing were assessed to determine their contribution to age-related variance in complex span. Results showed that developmental improvements in complex span were driven by 2 age-related but separable factors: 1 associated with general speed of processing and 1 associated with storage ability. In addition, there was an age-related contribution shared between working memory, processing speed, and storage ability that was important for higher level cognition. These results pose a challenge for models of complex span performance that emphasize the importance of processing speed alone.

Age Factors↗