Impaired awareness of the effects of brain injury
is a commonly observed and poorly understood finding in
traumatic brain injury survivors. Nonetheless, impaired
awareness has been identified as a major factor in determining
outcome for traumatic brain injury survivors. Review of
previous studies of impaired awareness in this patient
population revealed a number of preliminary findings regarding
the nature of this phenomenon. The present paper presents
the results of 2 new studies with a total of 111 traumatic
brain injury patients conducted to bring further clarity
to this area. Findings confirmed and extended many results
of previous investigations. Specific findings included
patient overestimation of functioning as compared to family
member ratings, patient report of greater physical than
nonphysical impairment, greater patient–family agreement
on specific ratings of patient functioning than on general
ratings, greater agreement of family and clinician ratings
of patient functioning with each other than with patient
self-ratings, and partial disagreement of different methods
of measuring impaired awareness. (JINS, 1998,
4, 380–387.)