Investigating the effect of fatigue and psychological distress on information processing speed in the postacute period after mild traumatic brain injury in premorbidly healthy adults

Abstract

Impairments in processing speed under conditions of increasing cognitive load have been reported in individuals with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). In other conditions that are also associated with white matter disruption, both psychological distress and fatigue have been shown to underlie this impairment. Objective: the current study aimed to investigate whether slowing of processing abilities under conditions of greater cognitive load is independent of fatigue and psychological status in premorbidly healthy individuals with subacute mTBI. Method: using a prospective observational design, we examined 84 individuals with mTBI approximately 8 weeks after injury and 47 healthy control (HC..