Quantifying the effects of brain injury fatigue - version 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Pilot study of brief repeatable cognitive task with clinical sample for comparison with controls, to assess rate of deterioration in performance attributable to post brain injury fatigue
IRAS ID
174446
Contact name
Andy Champion
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 24 days
Research summary
Marked fatigue is a common consequence of brain injury that can be an obstacle to returning to activities such as work. It is not uncommon for people to struggle to manage their fatigue because they find it difficult to gauge how long they can undertake sustained periods of mental exertion before the effects of fatigue become apparent in the form of a deterioration in skills such as concentration and memory.
The study would involve people who have sustained a brain injury, who would be attending hospital brain injury or neurology clinics, or be clients of Headway, the national brain injury charity. The control participants will be recruited from Headway staff, carers attending Headway, and administrative/clinical colleagues linked with the health psychology department. As this is a 'proof of concept' pilot study the numbers envisaged are small, with the aim of recruiting a minimum of eight people with brain injury and sixteen control participants.
The participants would be asked to undertake a brief (approximately two minutes) task using standard playing cards every half hour for two hours (i.e. a total of five times). By comparing performance of people who are presenting with post brain injury fatigue across several administrations of a brief cognitive task with the performance of a control sample, the study aims to help individuals struggling to manage their post brain injury fatigue effectively to quantify their threshold for sustained periods of mental exertion.
REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SC/0338
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jun 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion