Subjective Cognitive Complaints in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Association with Cognitive Test Performance and Protective Psychological Factors.

Objective: To examine subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), and to explore the associations between SCC, cognitive test performance and protective psychological factors.

Method: A sample of patients with mTBI (n = 99) or orthopedic injury (OI; n = 34) prospectively recruited and assessed 3 months post-injury. All participants underwent a neuropsychological test battery and completed self-report measures on SCC, psychological resilience, perceived social support, depressive symptoms, fatigue, and pain.

Results: 27.3% of the patients with mTBI and 17.6% of the OI controls endorsed at least some SCC. The two groups did not differ significantly in their SCC endorsement. Within the mTBI group, patients with and without SCC did not differ significantly in their cognitive test performance in majority of the cognitive domains examined. Patients with SCC reported lower psychological resilience (p = .005) and perceived social support (p = .009) than the non-SCC group.

Conclusions: This study provides support for the notion that SCC following mTBI are not consistently related to cognitive test performance deficits and further suggests SCC may associate with perceived social support and psychological resilience. These findings highlight the importance of considering psychological factors in the clinical assessment and intervention planning of patients presenting with SCC after mTBI.