Attentional impairment following traumatic brain injury

The incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is approximately 2,000,000 cases annually, and approximately 5.3 million Americans are currently living with some degree of cognitive-linguistic impairment secondary to TBI. One frequent aspect of that impairment is disordered attention. Attention is a complex system comprised of several component skills, each of which may be compromised by TBI and thus must be carefully assessed to design appropriate treatment protocols. Attention treatments for patients with TBI frequently involve implementing environmental controls and designing individualized therapy tasks that vary in terms of information processing demands. This article provides a summary of those attention impairments frequently associated with TBI and outlines assessment and treatment guidelines for clinicians serving TBI patients with attention problems.