Persuasive Discourse Impairments in Traumatic Brain Injury

Background: Considering the cognitive and linguistic complexity of discourse production, it is expected that individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) should face difficulties in this task. Therefore, clinical examination of discourse has become a useful tool for studying and assessment of communication skills of people suffering from TBI. Among different genres of discourse, persuasive discourse is considered as a more cognitively demanding task. However, little is known about persuasive discourse in individuals suffering from TBI. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of adults with TBI on a task of spoken persuasive discourse to determine the impaired linguistic measures. Patients and Methods: Thirteen TBI nonaphasic Persian speaking individuals, ranged between 19 to 40 years (Mean = 25.64 years; SD = 6.10) and 59 healthy adults matched by age, were asked to perform the persuasive discourse task. The task included asking the participants to express their opinion on a topic, and after the analysis of the produced discourse, the two groups were compared on the basis of their language productivity, sentential complexity, maze ratio and cohesion ratio. Results: The TBI group produced discourses with less productivity, sentential complexity, cohesion ratio and more maze ratio compared the control group. Conclusions: As it is important to consider acquired communication disorders particularly discourse impairment of brain injured patients along with their other clinical impairments and regarding the fact that persuasive discourse is crucial in academic and social situations, the persuasive discourse task presented in this study could be a useful tool for speech therapists, intending to evaluate communication disorders in patients with TBI

Quality of life in patients with vitiligo: A cross-sectional study based on Vitiligo Quality of Life index (VitiQoL)

Background: Vitiligo is a multi-factorial pigmentary skin disorder. Recently, the importance of emotional and psychological issues is proposed in incidence, progression, relapse and remission of vitiligo. There are limited studies conducted in developing countries, which assess life quality of patients with vitiligo. The aim of this study was the application and evaluation of a disease-specific quality of life index in Iranian patients, for the first time. Methods: This cross-sectional biphasic study was conducted on 25 patients as a pilot and another 173 patients as the main study group, in Razi Hospital, Tehran, Iran, 2013-2014. Persian version of Vitiligo Quality of Life index (VitiQoL) was developed with backward-forward method. Based on the pilot study, the validity and reliability were assessed. The Vitiligo Area and Score Index (VASI), VitiQoL, and their relationship, demographic and clinical characteristic of patients were measured. Results: The Mean and standard deviation of the VitiQoL score was 30.5 ± 14.5 (range 0-60 in Persian version). There was a significant relationship between VASI score and VitiQoL (p = 0.015, r = 0.187). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed three important factors within VitiQoL: participation limitation, stigma, and behavior. In subscale analysis based on behavior factor, female patients had poorer quality of life (p = 0.02). Concomitant psychiatric problems, e.g. anxiety and depression, were not associated with QOL; however, they were near to being meaningful (p = 0.06, r = 0.14). Conclusion: VitiQoL is a valid index in estimating life quality of vitiligo patients and has proper relation to disease severity. Focusing on patient's life quality is an important entity in the management of vitiligo patients; relevant supportive group-based consultations and therapies are also important arms when approaching vitiligo. © 2016 The Author(s)

Narrative discourse impairments in Persian-speaking persons with traumatic brain injury: a pilot study

Objective: Studies have shown the presence of narrative discourse difficulties in persons with Traumatic Brain Injury, even those who do not suffer from aphasia. Yet, there still exist inconsistencies among results of different studies, in particular in microlinguistic level. Moreover, limited languages are studied in this regard. So this study aimed at examining these skills in Persian-speaking individuals with TBI. The purpose of this pilot study was to analyse the microlinguistic and macrolinguistic skills of Persian-speaking individuals with TBI to determine impaired linguistic measures in different levels of narrative discourse. Participants and Methods: Fourteen non-aphasic Persian-speaking persons with TBI (9 with severe TBI and 5 with moderate TBI), aged 19-40 years (mean=25.84, SD=5.69) and 61 age-matched healthy adults, completed a narrative task. Measures of language productivity, clause density, verbal-error ratio, and cohesion ratio were calculated. Also, test-retest and inter-rater reliability coefficients were analysed. Results: The TBI group was impaired on some microlinguistic and all macrolinguistic measures compared to their control peers. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that multi-level narrative discourse analysis of Persian-speaking individuals with TBI may be useful for speech/language pathologists wishing to evaluate communication disorders in persons with TBI