Citation

Stenberg J, Godbolt AK, Möller MC. J. Rehabil. Med. 2018; 50(3): 253-260.

Affiliation

Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Danderyds Sjukhus AB, SE-182 20 Stockholm, Sweden. jonas.stenis83@gmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Foundation for Rehabilitation Information)

DOI

10.2340/16501977-2309

PMID

29313873

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether the use of personally relevant stimuli, for some tasks in the Coma Recovery Scale - Revised (CRS-R), generates more responses in patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness compared with neutral stimuli.

DESIGN: Multiple single-case design. SUBJECTS: Three patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness recruited from an inpatient department at a regional brain injury rehabilitation clinic in Stockholm, Sweden.

METHODS: Patients were repeatedly assessed with the CRS-R. Randomization tests (bootstrapping) were used to compare the number of responses generated by personally relevant and neutral stimuli on 5 items in the CRS-R.

RESULTS: Compared with neutral stimuli, photographs of relatives generated significantly more visual fixations. A mirror generated visual pursuit to a significantly greater extent than other self-relevant stimuli. On other items, no significant differences between neutral and personally relevant stimuli were seen.

CONCLUSION: Personally relevant visual stimuli may minimize the risk of missing visual fixation, compared with the neutral stimuli used in the current gold standard behavioural assessment measure (CRS-R). However, due to the single-subject design this conclusion is tentative and more research is needed.

Language: en