Psychological Test Signs of Brain Damage in Cerebral Thrombosis

Abstract

A study was made of 204 patients between 40 and 80 yr. of age, 108 who had had a cerebral thrombosis and were thus known to have damage to the brain and 96 who had had a myocardial infarction but no known brain damage. The two groups were compared on the Rorschach, Proverb Interpretations, Draw-A-Man, Bender-Gestalt, Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices, and WAIS Digit Span and Vocabulary tests. Every test distinguished successfully between the cerebral and cardiac patients; each test, divided at its optimum point, correctly classified more patients than could be expected by chance; a significant association between diagnosis and scores on each test was shown by contingency coefficients; positive relationships between every test (except Digit Span, which was not calculated) and each of the other tests was shown by Spearman rank correlations ranging from .39 to .81. Considering the age, education, and socioeconomic status of the patients, and especially the fact that they all had some atherosclerosis, the tests differentiated the groups extremely well, with the Rorschach generally proving most effective. In view of the number of patients misclassified when each test was divided at its maximally differentiating point, it was concluded that none of the tests could be safely used by itself for individual diagnosis.

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