Assessment of cognitive functions in individuals with post-traumatic symptoms after work-related accidents

The investigation of cognitive functions in individuals who developed post-traumatic symptoms after occupational accidents has been overlooked in the relevant literature. The present study was aimed at assessing attention, memory and executive functions in individuals with post-traumatic symptoms after a workplace accident. Moreover, possible presence of emotional interference from trauma-related cues on attentional performance was evaluated. Results showed that injured workers exhibited deficits in perceptual-psychomotor skills, executive functions, attention and concentration abilities, and memory as compared with healthy controls. With regards to emotional interference on attention, injured workers were found to perform significantly worse than controls specifically when exposed to trauma-related pictures. Overall, these findings suggest that post-traumatic symptoms following a workplace accident are associated with several cognitive and emotional dysfunctions, that should be carefully evaluated to help reduce the frequency and the adverse consequences of occupational accidents. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.