Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:39:29.213Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Assessment of executive dysfunction following traumatic brain injury: Comparison of the BADS with other clinical neuropsychological measures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2005

PAULEEN C. BENNETT
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Victoria, Australia
BEN ONG
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia
JENNIE PONSFORD
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Traditional neuropsychological measures of executive dysfunction (ED) are widely believed to lack adequate sensitivity and selectivity. This may indicate that existing measures are poorly designed and constructed, although an alternative explanation is that executive cognition is multifactorial, such that its assessment necessarily requires administration of multiple measures. This possibility led to the development of a test battery, the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS). To investigate the sensitivity of the BADS to ED, it and various other measures of ED were administered to 64 persons who had sustained traumatic brain injury. The treating clinical neuropsychologist and occupational therapist for each participant also completed a behavioural rating scale, the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX). Four factors were found to underlie scores on the neuropsychological measures, but few tests were sufficiently powerful to make a significant unique contribution to predicting scores on the DEX. This confirms that multiple tests, drawn from both the BADS and other sources, may be necessary to detect ED in a clinical population. (JINS, 2005, 11, 606–613.)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2005 The International Neuropsychological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alderman, N., Evans, J.J., Burgess, P., & Wilson, B.A. (1993). Behavioural assessment of the dysexecutive syndrome. Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology, 15, 6970.Google Scholar
Ardila, A., Pineda, D., & Rosselli, M. (2000). Correlation between intelligence test scores and executive function measures. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 15, 3136.Google Scholar
Axelrod, B.N. & Millis, S.R. (1994). Preliminary standardization of the Cognitive Estimation Test. Assessment, 1, 269274.Google Scholar
Banich, M.T. (1997). Neuropsychology: The neural basis of mental function. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Bennett, P.C., Ong, B., & Ponsford, J. (2005). Measuring executive dysfunction in an acute rehabilitation setting: Using the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX). Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 11, 110.Google Scholar
Bryan, J. & Luszcz, M.A. (2000). Measurement of executive function: Considerations for detecting adult age differences. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 22, 4055.Google Scholar
Burgess, P.W., Alderman, N., Evans, J., Emslie, H., & Wilson, B.A. (1998). The ecological validity of tests of executive function. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4, 547558.Google Scholar
Chan, R. (2001). Dysexecutive symptoms among a non-clinical sample: A study with the use of the dysexecutive questionnaire. British Journal of Psychology, 92, 551565.Google Scholar
Crawford, J.R., Bryan, J., Luszcz, M.A., Obonsawin, M.C., & Stewart, L. (2000). The executive decline hypothesis of cognitive aging: Do executive deficits qualify as differential deficits and do they mediate age-related memory decline? Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 7, 931.Google Scholar
Evans, J.J., Chua, S.E., McKenna, P.J., & Wilson, B.A. (1997). Assessment of the dysexecutive syndrome in schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine, 27, 635646.Google Scholar
Heaton, R.K. (1981). Wisconsin Card Sorting Test Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Kafer, K.L. & Hunter, M. (1997). On testing the face validity of planning/problem-solving tasks in a normal population. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 3, 108119.Google Scholar
Levin, H. & Kraus, M.F. (1994). The frontal lobes and traumatic brain injury. Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, 6, 443454.Google Scholar
Lezak, M.D. (1993). Newer contributions to the neuropsychological assessment of executive functions. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 8, 2431.Google Scholar
Lezak, M.D. (1995). Neuropsychological Assessment (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Miyake, A., Friedman, N.P., Emerson, M.J., Witzki, A.H., Howerter, A., & Wager, T.D. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contribution to complex “frontal lobe” tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 49100.Google Scholar
Norris, G. & Tate, R.L. (2000). The Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS): Ecological, concurrent and construct validity. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 10, 3345.Google Scholar
Obonsawin, M.C., Crawford, J.R., Page, J., Chalmers, P., Cochrane, R., & Low, G. (2002). Performance on tests of frontal lobe function reflects general intellectual ability. Neuropsychologia, 40, 970977.Google Scholar
Porteus, S.D. (1965). Porteus Maze Test: Fifty years' application. Palo Alto, CA: Pacific Books.
Shallice, T. (2002). Fractionation of the supervisory system. In D. Stuss & R. Knight (Eds.), Principles of frontal lobe function (pp. 261277). London: Oxford University Press.
Shallice, T. & Evans, M.E. (1978). The involvement of the frontal lobes in cognitive estimation. Cortex, 14, 294303.Google Scholar
Stuss, D.T. & Alexander, M.P. (2000). Executive functions and the frontal lobes: A conceptual review. Psychological Research, 63, 289298.Google Scholar
Tranel, D., Anderson, S.W., & Benton, A.L. (1994). Development of the concept of ‘executive function’ and its relationship to the frontal lobes. In F. Boller & J. Grafman (Eds.), Handbook of neuropsychology (pp. 125148). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Wilson, B.A., Alderman, N., Burgess, P.W., Emslie, H., & Evans, J.J. (1996). Behavioural assessment of the dysexecutive syndrome: Test manual. Bury St. Edmonds, UK: Thames Valley Test Company.
Wilson, B.A., Evans, J.J., Emslie, H., Alderman, N., & Burgess, P. (1998). The development of an ecologically valid test for assessing patients with dysexecutive syndrome. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 8, 213228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar