Neurobehavioural consequences of closed head injury in the elderly

The assessment of neurobehavioural outcome after head injury in older patients (> 60 year old) has met with difficulties, due to the obstacles in finding subjects who would constitute an appropriate control group. In the present study, survivors of closed head injury (CHI) of this age group were compared to two control groups: (1) orthopaedic patients (OP) who were injured in similar circumstances but did not sustain head injury and (2) healthy, age-matched volunteers (HC). Compared with HC, CHI and OP were impaired on word fluency, memory and reasoning. No differences were found between CHI and the OP. These results may indicate that, rather than resulting only from the head injury brought about by falling, the cognitive decline may predate the injury and increase the risk of accidents in old age.