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Long-term outcome following severe and very severe closed head injury during childhood

Includes bibliography.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Colam, Alan David
Other Authors: Ruthenberg, David
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Psychology 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Colam, Alan David
author2 Ruthenberg, David
author_browse Colam, Alan David
Ruthenberg, David
author_facet Ruthenberg, David
Colam, Alan David
author_sort Colam, Alan David
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliography.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14816
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:33.381Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Department of Psychology
publisherStr Department of Psychology
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14816 Long-term outcome following severe and very severe closed head injury during childhood Colam, Alan David Ruthenberg, David Clinical Psychology Includes bibliography. A retrospective follow-up study of nineteen Coloured subjects who sustained severe and very severe closed head injury in motor vehicle accidents while under the age of 15 years was carried out at a mean of 6,1 years post-injury. Each subject was neuropsychologically assessed using a battery of tests including those of general intellectual ability and motor, visuo-graphic, language and memory functioning. The performance of the head-injured group was compared with that of a control group-of ten normal subjects matched with the head-injured subjects for race and social class. In seventeen cases a detailed follow-up interview was obtained from one of the head-injured subject's primary caretakers. The results of the study suggest that global intellectual deficit is to be found most frequently where the duration of post-traumatic amnesia exceeds three weeks. Global impairment of IQ appears to be unlikely where post-traumatic amnesia lasts for less than one week. Subjects with a history of three weeks post- traumatic amnesia appear to be pervasively impaired in tests of neuropsychological function at long-term follow-up. Results indicate that post-traumatic amnesia of over one week but less than three weeks' duration is linked with long-term impairment in manual dexterity, motor-speed and precision, visuographic functioning and language production. It is suggested that post-traumatic amnesia of less than one week is linked with impaired motor-speed and precision and deficient language production. The most frequently reported changes following closed head injury include the development of headaches and motor weakness on one or other side of the body, irritability and impatience, anxiety, a tendency to withdraw, have a low tolerance for stress and impaired ability to attend. Forgetfulness, learning difficulties and scholastic failure also appear to be frequent sequelae. It is noted that, due to the small size of the sample, the results and conclusions are only suggestive of long-term outcome patterns in the Coloured South African who sustains severe or very severe closed head injury during childhood. 2015-11-10T14:20:34Z 2015-11-10T14:20:34Z 1984 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14816 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Clinical Psychology
Colam, Alan David
Long-term outcome following severe and very severe closed head injury during childhood
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Long-term outcome following severe and very severe closed head injury during childhood
title_full Long-term outcome following severe and very severe closed head injury during childhood
title_fullStr Long-term outcome following severe and very severe closed head injury during childhood
title_full_unstemmed Long-term outcome following severe and very severe closed head injury during childhood
title_short Long-term outcome following severe and very severe closed head injury during childhood
title_sort long term outcome following severe and very severe closed head injury during childhood
topic Clinical Psychology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14816
work_keys_str_mv AT colamalandavid longtermoutcomefollowingsevereandverysevereclosedheadinjuryduringchildhood