Functional abilities and distress levels in brain injured patients at long-term follow-up.

An investigative long-term follow-up study of brain injured individuals who had been inpatients in an interdisciplinary rehabilitation program was conducted by means of a mailed questionnaire. Level of distress, gauged by the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), was compared to the level of functional abilities as determined by a shortened self-report version of the Patient Evaluation Conference System (PECS). Functional skills compared included self-care, mobility, living arrangements, communication, recreation/leisure, and education/employment. Significant negative relationships of distress levels to independence in self-care, mobility, living arrangements, and communication were found.