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Effects of screening for postconcussive syndrome (PCS) on PCS symptom self-report and neuropsychological test performance

Abstract Objective: Many non-neurological factors are related to postconcussive syndrome (PCS) symptom report and neuropsychological test performance in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Use of mTBI screening instruments may also contribute to report of PCS symptoms and neuropsychological performance. We examined the impact of randomized PCS screening feedback on PCS symptom report and neuropsychological performance in 152 young adults with no history of mTBI. Method: Participants were 158 undergraduates attending a medium-sized Midwestern university who completed the Postconcussive Syndrome Questionnaire (PCSQ) prior to the study and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. Participants were either given feedback that they endorsed more symptoms than average, feedback that they endorsed fewer symptoms than average, or neutral information. Participants then completed the PCSQ for a second time as well as the Auditory Verbal Learning Test and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test. Results: Contrary to expectations, participants receiving feedback that they endorsed more symptoms than average did not endorse more PCSQ symptoms post-feedback than participants in other conditions (p = .12); however, consistent with expectations, they demonstrated poorer verbal learning (p = .005) and delayed recall (p = .04) than participants in the below average feedback condition and reported higher rates of retrospective recall of prior mTBI than participants in the neutral condition (p = .01). Conclusion: Results suggest that feedback from screening measures can influence individuals’ performance and retrospective recall of their personal TBI history. Findings have implications for use of screening measures for PCS in clinical and research settings.