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Biomedical subjects

L Rahmani

Publications and source records attributed to L Rahmani.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1987

Neuropsycho-social rehabilitation of head injury.

The present article summarizes 10 years of experience in head injury rehabilitation at Loewenstein Rehabilitation Center. The goal of rehabilitation in head injured patients consists of returning to work and adaptation to: interpersonal consequences of disability; new affective needs; and capacity to attend to financial, legal and bureaucratic matters. The achievement of these goals goes far beyond neurological boundaries in the ordinary narrow sense and needs a neuropsycho-social approach. Neuropsycho-social rehabilitation in head injury has multidimensional clinical aspects. Two problems should be emphasised: a) gross neurological disability (mono, hemi, para and triplegia) found in the presence of good cognitive function (patients easy to rehabilitate) and b) minor neurological disability found in the presence of gross cognitive impairment (patients not easy to rehabilitate). Posttraumatic epilepsy needs general criteria for its management. It is preferable to wait for the first seizure in order to start anticonvulsant treatment, except for 3 at risk conditions: 1) diffuse bilateral injury 2) prolonged coma, and 3) intracerebral hematoma. The first 3 years is the maximum at risk period. The traumatic syndrome consisting of impaired insight and behaviour disturbances is underdiagnosed owing to the absence of neurological signs. The sleep disturbances accompanying head injury are usually underestimated.

Behavior↗
PubMed1985

Attention capacity limitation, psychiatric parameters and their impact on work involvement following brain injury.

A follow-up study conducted among brain-injured patients explored the correlation between attention capacity limitation and psychiatric parameters as well as their impact on work involvement, two years after hospitalization. Capacity limitation was identified as difficulties in dual-task performance which requires simultaneous attention and response to two sources of stimulation. Poor performance on one or both tasks included in the dual-task paradigm (pursuit motor tracking task and a verbal task) was correlated with psychiatric parameters of behavior, personality and thought. This also correlated with the inability reported by the patients to concentrate for long periods of time and to the feeling of fatigue after physical and mental effort. In addition, it was found that dual-task performance correlated with work involvement. It was concluded that there is a reciprocal relationship between the variables studied. Attention capacity limitations are manifested in various psychiatric parameters; conversely, some psychiatric parameters affect the performance on the dual-task. This highlights the difficulty such patients have in coping with work demands and their consequent inability to maintain steady employment.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Behavioral disturbances as an expression of severity of cerebral damage.

The present study was designed to validate our ongoing clinical observations, which reveal that distinct clusters of psychiatric symptoms tend to develop following mild or severe brain injury, independently of injury location. These clusters are termed "Extroversion" and "Introversion" syndromes respectively. The symptoms constituting each syndrome manifest themselves along four domains: behavior, personality, affect and cognition. The study sample included 85 brain-injured patients recalled for a follow-up examination 2-3 years after discharge from hospital. Classification into Extroversion and Introversion was done on the basis of a structured psychiatric interview. Severity of brain damage was independently assessed by combinations of five parameters: unconsciousness and PTA duration, cognitive deficiencies, communication and locomotor disorders. The results supported our clinical observations, suggesting that severity of brain damage could also be assessed by the nature of psychiatric symptomatology exhibited following the injury.

Adolescent↗