Neurobehavioral Profiles in Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury

Research Objectives: To establish neurobehavioral symptom profiles among individuals with chronic mild-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) using the Behavioral Assessment Screening Tool (BAST).

Design: Cross-sectional

Setting: Community

Participants: English-speaking adults (n=615) over the age of 18 with a history of at least one self-reported TBI.

Interventions: Not Applicable

Main Outcome Measures: The BAST is a measure of neurobehavioral function developed and validated in adults with TBI. The BAST consists of five subscales: Negative Affect, Fatigue, Executive Dysfunction, Substance Abuse, and Impulsivity.

Results: We determined neurobehavioral profiles based on BAST subscale scores using latent profile analysis (LPA). We identified three different profiles. Profiles 1 and 2 were similar with individuals in Profile 1 generally scoring higher on the BAST across all five domains (e.g., endorsing more frequency symptoms/experiences). However, Group 2 had a larger proportion of females and people with mild TBI than Group 1. Group 3 was markedly different with regard to Substance Abuse and Fatigue; they endorsed more Substance Abuse and less Fatigue than Groups 1 or 2. Group 3 had the largest proportion of men, persons with more severe TBI, those with high school education or less, and racial minorities. There were also younger on average than other groups.

Conclusions: We distinguished three different neurobehavioral profile groups among individuals with chronic TBI. Future research should validate the presence of these 3 profiles with an independent sample. The profiles can also be related to outcome variables and tested in more acute to subacute samples so that the BAST can be used to predict risk for negative outcome or response to intervention targeting symptoms.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors report no conflicts of interest.