Affective Disorders after Traumatic Brain Injury: Cautions in the Use of the Symptom Checklist-90-R

DESIGN: The current study compared the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R) results from a population of 88 individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) to those of a normative group. SETTING: Individuals with traumatic brain injury referred to a university-based psychology clinic. RESULTS: Results corroborated those from a smaller study,(1) where a considerable proportion of the elevations found on the subscales was attributed to endorsement of items identified as having a neurological basis. CONCLUSION: This reinforces the view that the results of neurological groups on clinical measures of emotional distress that have been standardized on physically healthy populations can be distorted because many of the items can be answered from physical and emotional perspectives.