Synonyms
Posttraumatic confusion
Definition
A transient period of globally disturbed attention in a patient with traumatic brain injury, immediately following the onset of injury. Posttraumatic confusional state, or PTC, was introduced by Stuss et al. (1999). The PTC concept emerged following research that demonstrated that the initial cognitive and behavioral symptoms after traumatic brain injury were not solely limited to disturbances of orientation and amnesia, as the construct of posttraumatic amnesia (PTA) suggests.
Current Knowledge
Stuss et al. (1999) introduced the construct of PTC as an alternative and perhaps more accurate reflection of early behavioral and cognitive symptoms in brain injury than PTA, as all patients with traumatic brain injury may not experience significant PTA. PTC is thought to be similar to delirium in that it presents immediately following the onset of traumatic brain injury and may remain for an undefined period of time. There are still controversies...
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Nakase-Richardson, R., Yablon, S. A., & Sherer, M. (2007). Prospective comparison of acute confusion severity with duration of post-traumatic amnesia in predicting employment outcome after traumatic brain injury. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, & Psychiatry, 78, 872–876.
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Silva, M. A., Nakase-Richardson, R., Sherer, M., Barnett, S. D., Evans, C. C., & Yablon, S. A. (2012). Posttraumatic confusion predicts patient cooperation during traumatic brain injury rehabilitation. American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 91, 890–893.
Stuss, D. T., Binns, M. A., Carruth, F. G., Levine, B., Brandys, C. E., Moulton, R. J., Snow, W. G., & Schwartz, M. L. (1999). The acute period of recovery from traumatic brain injury: Posttraumatic amnesia or posttraumatic confusional state? Journal of Neurosurgery, 90, 635–643.
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Rush, B. (2018). Post-traumatic Confusional State. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_271
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_271
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