Benge Jared F, Pastorek Nicholas J, Thornton G Matthew
Medical Health Care Line, Michael E. DeBakey Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Rehabil Psychol. 2009 Aug;54(3):270-8. doi: 10.1037/a0016736.
Veterans with a history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) are reporting postconcussive symptoms (PCSx) in addition to experiencing postdeployment physical and emotional comorbidities. The Veterans Health Administration has mandated specialized evaluation and treatment for veterans with a history of mTBI and has suggested widespread use of the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI) as a measure of PCSx. This study evaluated the NSI's factor structure and assessed the impact of posttraumatic stress (PTS) on the scale at the item and factor levels.
Five hundred twenty-nine charts of returning veterans who screened positive for traumatic brain injury were reviewed, and 345 who met criteria for mTBI were included in the study.
Results of factor analysis on the NSI revealed a difficult-to-interpret factor structure that was inconsistent with the results of civilian studies. PTS explained 5%-38% of the variance in individual PCSx, and after controlling for this variance, the factor structure more closely paralleled findings from the civilian literature.
PTS is an important variable to account for when evaluating PCSx in veterans. Research and clinical implications for the measurement and interpretation of self-reported PCSx are discussed.
有轻度创伤性脑损伤（mTBI）病史的退伍军人除了经历部署后身体和情绪共病外，还报告有脑震荡后症状（PCSx）。退伍军人健康管理局已要求对有mTBI病史的退伍军人进行专门评估和治疗，并建议广泛使用神经行为症状量表（NSI）来衡量PCSx。本研究评估了NSI的因子结构，并在项目和因子层面评估了创伤后应激（PTS）对该量表的影响。
回顾了529名脑损伤筛查呈阳性的退伍军人的病历，其中345名符合mTBI标准的退伍军人被纳入研究。
NSI的因子分析结果显示出一个难以解释的因子结构，这与平民研究的结果不一致。PTS解释了个体PCSx中5%-38%的方差，在控制了这一方差后，因子结构更接近平民文献中的研究结果。
在评估退伍军人的PCSx时，PTS是一个需要考虑的重要变量。讨论了自我报告的PCSx测量和解释的研究及临床意义。
