Unawareness of cognitive deficits and daily functioning among persons with traumatic brain injuries

This study examines levels of unawareness of cognitive deficits and their relationship to functional outcome among persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Data from 61 persons with TBI and 34 family members consisting of various measures were used. The results suggest that awareness of cognitive deficits is not differentially distributed along a concrete-abstract continuum of cognitive domains. Awareness in this sample was significantly related to psychiatric symptomatology and partially associated with behavior disturbances and daily functioning, but not with vocational outcomes. Persons with TBI who over-estimated their cognitive abilities were found to function worse on most outcome measures, except vocation, than persons who did not overestimate their abilities.