Juan Carlos Arango-Lasprilla

Virginia Commonwealth University | VCU · Department of Psychology (College of Humanities and Sciences)

Memory deficits are a hallmark of many different neurological and psychiatric conditions. The Rey–Osterrieth complex figure (ROCF) is the state-of-the-art assessment tool for neuropsychologists across the globe to assess the degree of non-verbal visual memory deterioration. To obtain a score, a trained clinician inspects a patient’s ROCF drawing an...

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability worldwide and often leads to long-lasting emotional, physical, and cognitive changes and results in reduced functioning across multiple domains. These changes often lead to strain in marital relationships as the uninjured spouse grapples with adapting to the changes i...

Abstract: Background/Objectives: Overall priorities of the international pediatric-onset spinal cord injury (SCI) population are unknown. The purpose was to describe and compare Life and Health (L&H) domain overall priorities of European youth with SCI and their parents and caregivers (P&C). Methods: A survey with a cross-sectional design, prepared...

BACKGROUND: Hispanics/Latinos are the largest racial/ethnic group among underrepresented populations in the U.S. and multiple sociodemographic, cultural, and linguistic factors have been found to impact their performances on cognitive testing. Despite this, few normative data are available for the heterogeneous Spanish-speaking population in the U....

Background: Hispanics are the largest growing ethnic minority group in the U.S. Despite significant progress in providing norms for this population, updated normative data are essential. Objective: To present the methodology for a study generating normative neuropsychological test data for Spanish-speaking adults living in the U.S. using Bayesian i...

BACKGROUND: Hispanics are a significant demographic in the U.S., with diverse cultures and languages. Assessing cognition in this group is complex as cultural and linguistic factors have been found to affect test performance. OBJECTIVE: To generate normative data on the World Health Organization-University of California Los Angeles Auditory Verbal...

Background: The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCFT) and the Clock Drawing Test (CDT) are commonly used in clinical practice. The ROCFT measures constructional praxis, visual perception, and visuospatial learning and memory, and the CDT assesses for visuospatial, constructional, and executive difficulties. Several neurological disorders are...

BACKGROUND: Normative data for Spanish-speaking populations, particularly Hispanics in the U.S., is notably scarce. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to establish normative data for executive function tests (Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Stroop Color and Word Test) among Spanish-speaking Hispanics in the U.S. METHODS: We assessed 245 individual...

Background: The Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) is a widely used performance validity measure that is available in both English and Spanish. The Spanish version, however, has historically lacked normative data from samples that are representative of the U.S. Hispanic/Spanish speaking population. Objective: The aim of the current study was to c...

Background: Linguistic deficits are common across neurological and neurodegenerative disorders. Currently there are limited neuropsychological norms available for Spanish-speaking adults residing in the U.S. Objective: To generate norms for two verbal fluency tests and the Boston Naming Test (BNT) in a Spanish-speaking population in the U.S., wi...

Memory deficits are a hallmark of many different neurological and psychiatric conditions. The Rey-Osterrieth complex figure (ROCF) is the state–of-the-art assessment tool for neuropsychologists across the globe to assess the degree of non-verbal visual memory deterioration. To obtain a score, a trained clinician inspects a patient’s ROCF drawing an...

Memory deficits are a hallmark of many different neurological and psychiatric conditions. The Rey-Osterrieth complex figure (ROCF) is the state–of-the-art assessment tool for neuropsychologists across the globe to assess the degree of non-verbal visual memory deterioration. To obtain a score, a trained clinician inspects a patient’s ROCF drawing an...

Objective To generate normative data for the Verbal Fluency Test (VFT) and the Boston Naming Test (BNT) in the Costa Rican population. Method The sample consisted of 563 healthy older people (aged 59–90 years). Polynomial multiple regression analyses were run to evaluate the effects of the age, sex, and education variables on VFT and BNT scores....

Objective: To investigate (i) psychometric properties of the Danish version of the Caregiver Burden Scale, (ii) predictors of burden in caregivers of persons with stroke, spinal cord injury, or traumatic brain injury, and (iii) severity of caregiver burden, and compare level of severity of burden in caregivers of persons with stroke, spinal cord in...

Aim: Since the declaration of COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020, the disease escalated into a global pandemic forcing governments around the world to impose measures that affected all aspects of life. Among other countries, Greece adopted social restriction, lockdowns, and quarantines to reduce trans...

Purpose/Objective: The aim of this article is to evaluate the measurement invariance (MI) of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in a sample of individuals during the first 2 years after traumatic brain injury (TBI). MI was examined among racial/ethnic groups and over time to determine the utility of the PHQ-9 across these dimensions. Resear...

Purpose: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can lead to impairments in motor and cognitive function and reduced life satisfaction. TBI is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide and disproportionately affects Native Americans, who have the highest rates of TBI among all races in the United States and elevated likelihood for fatality a...

Objective To examine whether exposure to high-risk events causing injury to the head or neck has an effect on neurobehavioral symptoms in the absence of an alteration of consciousness in Spanish-speakers. Setting Web-based survey. Participants Seven hundred forty-eight individuals from Spain and Latin America, aged 18 to 65 years, with 10 years o...

BACKGROUND: Multiple Organ failure (MOF) is one of the main causes of admission to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of patients infected with COVID-19 and can cause short- and long-term neurological deficits. OBJECTIVE: To compare the cognitive functioning and functional brain connectivity at 6–12 months after discharge in two groups of individuals wi...

The study’s aim was to examine alcohol consumption patterns and predictors of consumption across time among Hispanics with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the U.S. within ten years post-injury. This longitudinal cohort study included 1342 Hispanic individuals (77.6% males) from the multi-site, longitudinal TBI Model Systems (TBIMS) database. The ma...

Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability worldwide and often leads to long-lasting emotional, physical, and cognitive changes and results in reduced functioning across multiple domains. These changes often lead to strain in marital relationships, as the uninjured spouse grapples with adapting to changes in th...

Background Although feedback from people with adult-onset spinal cord injury (SCI) has been considered for new rehabilitation programs, little is known about the priorities of the pediatric-onset SCI population. This study describes and compares health and life (H&L) domain research priorities of youth with pediatric-onset SCI and their parents/car...

Purpose: To explore families' experiences of participating in a family intervention, targeting families living with the consequences of acquired brain injury (ABI) or spinal cord injury (SCI). Materials and methods: Individuals with ABI or SCI and their family members were recruited from a randomised controlled trial investigating the effectiven...

Background Post-concussion symptoms (PCS) are a common consequence of pediatric traumatic brain injury (pTBI). They include cognitive, emotional, and physical disturbances. To address the lack of age-adapted instruments assessing PCS after pTBI, this study examines the psychometric properties of the German 17-item post-TBI version of the Postconcus...

Background Post-concussion symptoms (PCS) are a common consequence of pediatric traumatic brain injury (pTBI). They include cognitive, emotional, and physical disturbances. To address the lack of age-adapted instruments assessing PCS after pTBI, this study examines the psychometric properties of the German 17-item post-TBI version of the Postconcus...

Objective To quantify the evolution, impact, and importance of normative data (ND) calculation by identifying trends in the research literature and what approaches need improvement. Methods A PRISMA-guideline systematic review was performed on literature from 2000 to 2022 in PubMed, Pub-Psych, and Web of Science. Inclusion criteria included scient...

Objective To generate normative data of the Verbal Fluency Test (VFT) and Boston Naming Test (BNT) for healthy older adults in Costa Rica. Method The sample consisted of 563 healthy Costa Rican adults aged 59–90 years (M = 67.15; SD = 7). Each participant was administered the VFT and BNT as part of a more comprehensive neuropsychological battery....

Objective To generate normative data of the Word Memory List (WML) and Logic Memory (LM) for healthy older adults in Costa Rica. Method The sample consisted of 563 healthy Costa Rican adults, aged 59–90 years (M = 67.15; SD = 7), who were assessed with a complete neuropsychological battery. Results Multiple regression models showed a linear effec...

Objective The present study aimed to determine the current state of the practice of clinical neuropsychology in Bolivia. Method This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 72 professionals working in the field of neuropsychology in Bolivia. The information was collected through an online questionnaire that included 70...

Objective To examine alcohol consumption patterns and predictors of consumption across time among Hispanics with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in the United States (U.S.) within ten years post-injury. Methods Longitudinal cohort study. The sample included 1342 Hispanics (77.6% males) from the TBI Model Systems (TBIMS) database who had at least one...

Objective To generate normative data for Waranka indigenous population in a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Method 400 healthy children from Guaranda-Ecuador were evaluated. Inclusion criteria were: IQ ≥ 80 on the Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence-2, & a score of <19 on the Children’s Depression Inventory. 54.5% were girls with an average...

Objective To generate norms for monolinguals (MO) Spanish speakers, Basque bilinguals (BI) and Catalan BIs on verbal fluency tests (VFT). Method 89 MOs, 139 Basque BIs, and 132 Catalan BIs completed phonological and semantic VFT in Spanish and Basque or Catalan. Majority of the sample was women (62.2%) with age of 48.5 ± 18.2 and education 13.1 ±...

Objective To examine whether individuals who have had one exposure to lifetime subconcussive impacts differ from those who have had multiple subconcussive exposures or those who have never had any injury to the head or neck in their report of neurobehavioral symptoms. Method 458 adults from the continental U.S., Spain, and Latin America participat...

The Impact of COVID-19 in Women in the U.S.

Purpose: The NeuroBel is a short test that can detect cognitive decline using language tasks. This study replicated previous research using larger clinical samples from three Spanish-speaking countries. Method: Eight tasks were used to analyze verbal language functioning using a psycholinguistic approach. A total of 232 elderly, monolingual Span...

Objectives To systematically review the scientific literature regarding the acute assessment of sport-related concussion (SRC) and provide recommendations for improving the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT6). Data sources Systematic searches of seven databases from 2001 to 2022 using key words and controlled vocabulary relevant to concussion...

Purpose: To identify life satisfaction trajectories at 1-10 years post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) and examine which demographic and injury characteristics at the time of injury are associated with those trajectories. Methods: Participants included 1,051 Hispanic individuals from the multi-site, longitudinal TBI Model Systems (TBIMS) database....

Background: Verbal fluency tests (VFT) are highly sensitive to cognitive deficits. Usually, the score on VFT is based on the number of correct words produced, yet it alone gives little information regarding underlying test performance. The implementation of different strategies (cluster and switching) to perform efficiently during the tasks provid...

(1) Background: Acquired brain injury (ABI) or spinal cord injury (SCI) constitutes a severe life change for the entire family, often resulting in decreased quality of life (QoL) and increased caregiver burden. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a family intervention in individuals with ABI or SCI and in their famil...

Aim The COVID-19 outbreak escalated into a global pandemic, pushing many governments around the world to impose measures affecting all aspects of life. Similar to other countries, Greece adopted social restriction, lockdowns, and quarantines to reduce transmission from person-to-person. This cross-sectional study investigated the association betwee...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. To better understand its impact on various outcome domains, this study pursues the following: (1) longitudinal outcome assessments at three, six, and twelve months post-injury; (2) an evaluation of sociodemographic, premorbid, and injury-related factor...

Objective: Although racial/ethnic disparities have been documented in numerous outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI), research has yet to explore differences in rehabilitation outcomes based upon nativity (foreign-born vs US-born individuals). The purpose of this study was to compare the functional outcomes over the first 10 years after TBI...

Background: Previous research has found racial and ethnic disparities in life satisfaction, depression, and anxiety after traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, limited studies have examined differences in these variables between U.S.- and foreign-born individuals with TBI. The purpose of this study was to examine whether differences exist in ment...

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of low scores on eight commonly used neuropsychological tests to evaluate learning and memory, language, and executive functions in individuals with coca paste use disorders (CPUD) and to identify the differences with respect to a group of healthy nonconsuming subjects (HCs). Method...

Background: Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Latin America experience high levels of disability and extremely poor functional outcomes, and their informal caregivers play a key role in their rehabilitation and care. Objective: To improve TBI rehabilitation through stronger informal caregiving, this study developed and evaluated a...

Objective: Naming is commonly impaired in people with neurodegenerative diseases and brain injury, and as a result, its accurate assessment is essential. The aim of this study was to provide normative data for the 15-item Spanish version of the Boston Naming Test (BNT) for an adult population from eight Latin American countries/regions. Method: The...

(1) Background: Psychometric network analysis provides a novel statistical approach allowing researchers to model clusters of related symptoms as a dynamic system. This study applied network analysis to investigate the patterns of somatic, cognitive, and affective neurobehavioral symptoms in an international sample of Spanish-speaking individuals w...

Background Despite existing guidelines for managing mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), evidence-based treatments are still scarce and large-scale studies on the provision and impact of specific rehabilitation services are needed. This study aimed to describe the provision of rehabilitation to patients after complicated and uncomplicated mTBI and i...

Research Objectives To identify the trajectories of life satisfaction at 1 to 10 years post-TBI and to examine which demographic, injury and rehabilitation characteristics at the time of injury are associated with those trajectories. Design Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to examine baseline predictors of trajectories of life satisfact...

Research Objectives To investigate families’ experiences and perceived benefit of a manualized family intervention, targeting families living with the consequences of acquired brain injury (ABI) or spinal cord injury (SCI). Design Qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews. Setting Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, D...

Objective: To determine Spanish-speaking school professionals' level of knowledge and attitudes regarding pediatric TBI. Methods: School professionals(n = 2,238) from 19 countries completed an online-survey regarding their training, knowledge and misconceptions, attitudes and perceptions about TBI. Results: Of the full sample 75% (n = 1689) kn...

This is an observational exploratory study assessing self-concept and its association with depression, anxiety, satisfaction with life, and quality of life 6 months after experiencing a traumatic brain injury. Participants were 33 patients who suffered a traumatic brain injury 6 months before the assessment. The measures used in this study were the...

Background: Cognitive-behavioral alterations can occur after an acquired brain injury (ABI). Objectives: To develop and evaluate a synchronous online training program on emotional intelligence (EI) for the caregivers of adult patients with cognitive-behavioral impairment due to ABI. Methods: Quasi-experimental study. Ten caregivers attended a...

Background: Previous literature has documented racial/ethnic differences in traumatic brain injury (TBI) risk, cause, treatment, and rehabilitation. The purpose of the current study was to investigate potential racial/ethnic differences in arrest probability trajectories over the first 10 years after TBI and whether injury and sociodemographic char...

Background: Older adults have the highest traumatic brain injury (TBI)-related morbidity and mortality, and rates in older adults are increasing, chiefly due to falls. Objective: This study used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to examine baseline predictors of functional independence trajectories across 1, 2, 5, and 10 years after TBI in olde...

(1) Background: Some people with COVID-19 develop a series of symptoms that last for several months after infection, known as Long COVID. Although these symptoms interfere with people’s daily functioning and quality of life, few studies have focused on neurobehavioral symptoms and the risk factors associated with their development; (2) Methods: 100...

Background: Research has found that Hispanics with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have reduced functional outcomes compared to non-Hispanic Whites, including lower probabilities of post-injury employment. However, previous studies were cross-sectional, combined racial/ethnic minority groups, and did not examine the factors that predict return to wor...

Background: Cognitive-behavioral alterations can occur after an acquired brain injury. It is a stressful situation for patient and relatives. Objectives: To develop and evaluate a synchronous online training program on emotional intelligence (EI) for caregivers of adult patients with cognitive-behavioral impairment due to acquired brain injury. Met...

Background Sexual changes are an area of primary concern for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) and their partners, but the topic has gone largely unexplored in the research literature. Objectives This study examined how individuals with SCI in Latin America experience their sexuality and what issues they and their partners face in this are...

Objective: This study examined demographic and injury-related predictors of cognitive and motor functional independence in Hispanics with TBI at years 1, 2, 5, and 10 after hospital discharge. Design: Hispanic participants (n = 1,360) from the TBI Model Systems Study were included in if they had at least one Functional Independence Measure (FIM)...

To our knowledge, this is the first study reported in the literature that has validated the Norma Latina Battery in a population of people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in Mexico. The objective of the study was to determine the discriminant validity of the Norma Latina Battery in a group of Mexican individuals with AD and a group of heathy controls...

To examine rehabilitation professionals’ training and education, attitudes, beliefs or misconceptions, and assessment of issues related to sexuality in individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) and their romantic partners. 318 healthcare professionals from Latin America (LA) who worked with individuals with SCI completed an online survey. 99.0% aff...

Objectives COVID-19 has infected millions of people worldwide, with growing evidence that individuals with a history of infection may continue to show persistent post-COVID symptoms (long COVID). The aim of this study was to investigate sleep health in an international sample of individuals who reported previously testing positive for COVID-19. De...

Purpose The COVID-19 outbreak escalated into a global pandemic, forcing governments around the world to impose measures affecting all aspects of life. Like other countries, Greece adopted social restriction, lockdowns, and quarantines to reduce transmission from person-to-person. This cross-sectional study investigated the impact of social restrict...

Background: Despite numerous calls throughout the years for an increase in ethnic, cultural, and racial diversity within the field of psychology, it remains an elusive reality for Hispanic neuropsychology practitioners in the United States. Objective: 1. Determine the background and current work situation of Hispanic clinical neuropsychologists...

Post-concussion symptoms often occur after TBI, persist and cause disabilities. The Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ) is widely used in this population, but little is known about the comparability of the symptoms over time, i.e., longitudinal measurement invariance (MI). The objectives of this study were to analyze the longitud...