The relationship between cognitive reserve and outcome after controlling for psychological status and sex following mild traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE

Cognitive reserve is the brain's ability to optimize performance by differentially recruiting brain networks. It is easily measured and is reportedly associated with post-concussion symptom (PCS) reporting in the post-acute period after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Past studies have not examined whether this relationship exists when the influence of psychological status is removed, despite this factor being strongly associated with symptom reporting. This study investigated whether cognitive reserve predicts PCS reporting or cognitive complaint in the post-acute period after mTBI, independently from psychological status and sex.

METHOD

Ninety-four pre-morbidly healthy adults were assessed on three measures of cognitive reserve, as well as measures of post-concussion symptoms, cognitive complaint, and psychological status.

RESULTS

Bivariate analyses revealed significant relationships between measures of cognitive reserve and both PCS reporting ( < 0.01) and cognitive complaint (<.05). After removing the influence of psychological distress and sex, however, no measure of cognitive reserve significantly predicted any type of symptom reporting.

CONCLUSION

These findings indicate that cognitive reserve does not independently predict symptom reporting 9 weeks after mTBI, and clinicians should not incorporate this factor into their decision-making regarding likelihood of ongoing symptom reporting and the consequent need for intervention in the post-acute period after mTBI.