Impaired self-awareness and denial of disability in a community sample of people with traumatic brain injury

Purpose: To examine the nature and severity of impaired self-awareness (ISA) and denial of disability (DD) in a community-dwelling traumatic brain injury (TBI) population. Additionally, to investigate reliability, internal consistency, and feasibility of the Clinician’s Rating Scale for evaluating Impaired Self- Awareness and Denial of Disability after brain injury (CRS-ISA-DD). Materials and methods: ISA and DD were studied using the CRS-ISA-DD in a cross-sectional study with 78 TBI patients (3.1 years post-injury). Results: 42% of individuals approached consented to participate in this study. Most participants showed one or more symptoms of ISA and DD, but severity scores were in the lower range (ISA: 13.2 ± 16.2; DD: 9.4 ± 10.7). The CRS-ISA-DD takes <10 min to complete, has excellent inter-rater reliability (ISA: ICC(2,1) ¼ 0.928; DD: ICC(2,1) ¼ 0.835), and acceptable-good internal consistency (ISA: a¼0.819; DD: a¼0.645). ISA severity correlated with neuropsychological test scores (rs ¼ _0.30 to _0.47) and injury severity. DD severity correlated with anxiety (rs ¼ _0.22) but not with avoidance coping or defense mechanisms. Conclusions: Low levels of ISA and DD occurred in this sample of TBI patients. The CRS-ISA-DD is a reliable and feasible instrument. We recommend using it as a diagnostic tool to differentiate between ISA and DD once self-awareness problems have been identified.