William Huw Williams

University of Exeter | UoE · Department of Psychology

Purpose Looked after children (LAC) are criminalised at five times the rate of children in the general population. Children in contact with both child welfare and child justice systems have higher rates of neurodisability and substance use problems, and LAC in general have high rates of school exclusion, homelessness and unemployment. This study ai...

Introduction and aims Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Large registry studies have demonstrated a dose–response relationship between TBI and neurodegenerative disease ; however, disentangling the direct effects of TBI from ageing and/or a progressive neurodegenerative process is problematic. This st...

This chapter assesses ways to identify and support children with learning disabilities. Learning disabilities affect many students and are seldom attributable to a single cause. They arise through complex interactions between biological and environmental factors within individual developmental trajectories. Early identification of children at risk...

Armed Forces personnel are exposed to traumatic experiences during their work; therefore, they are at risk of developing emotional difficulties such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), following traumatic experiences. Despite evidence to suggest that self-compassion is effective in reducing the symptoms of PTSD, and greater levels of self-com...

Objective: To establish whether poor parental supervision is associated with head injury and self-reported reactive aggression (ie, aggression in response to perceived provocation or threat) in adolescents in a Young Offender's Institute, by examining correlations between these variables. Understanding this population is important, as they are at...

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relationship between patterns of functioning in four domains (attention and concentration; social and communication; coordination and organisation; and literacy and numeracy) in women in prison. Also, to consider potential associations between functioning and previous Neurodevelopmental Disorder (NDD) diagnose...

Offenders in custody are often disadvantaged in terms of education. Research shows that providing and improving education in custody can help reduce the possibility of recidivism and high crime rates in young offenders. Among various factors that can impact on youth’s ability to engage effectively with education in custody, prevalence rates of neur...

Introduction Police officers have a high risk of injury through assaults, road traffic incidents and attending domestic calls, with many officers developing post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a consequence. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common injury in populations involved in conflict and has been extensively linked to mental health diff...

A recent UN general comment on criminal justice systems includes guidance to state parties regarding the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child for children with developmental delays or neurodevelopmental disorders or disabilities. This guidance asserts that these children "should not be in the child justice system at all", but...

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), comprising 70–80% of all TBIs, is the commonest form of TBI, representing those injuries deemed to be at the lower end of the severity spectrum. In the general population, mTBI may occur as a result of a fall, work-related injury, sport or recreational activity, assault, motor vehicle accident, or any other activ...

Emotional processing is affected in childhood brain injury. Ineffective emotional processing and poor understanding of social cues affect the development of social relationships leading to social isolation and a poorer quality of life in the long-term. Facial expression recognition is a non-verbal social cue that is used to interpret the thoughts a...

Task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to examine neuroanatomical and functional changes following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Prior studies have lacked consistency in identifying common regions of altered neural activity during cognitive tasks. This may be partly due to differences in task paradigm, patient h...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is common in people who offend and is associated with risk of violence. As social cognition is often affected by TBI, we suggest criminal behaviour in people with TBI may be associated with deficits in social cognition. This study investigates facial affect recognition (FAR) in adolescent and young adult offenders with...

Purpose: Paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) can have resultant ongoing significant impairments which can impact life outcomes. The primary aim of this research was to explore whether TBI contributes to the relationship between poor educational outcomes and offending trajectories. Materials and methods: Through analysis of a dataset consisting...

Neuropsychological assessments results have significant implications for pediatric populations, based upon the assumption that the young person has adopted an effortful approach and has engaged in assessment. There is a commonly-accepted risk to assuming the validity of neuropsychological assessment results with adults, and, therefore, performance...

This report focuses on women in prison who have a neurodisability, and the care, treatment and support of this population. Brain injuries can be acquired through virus, stroke, or head injuries, sometimes including a loss of consciousness. Traumatic brain injury (TBI), typically resultant from an injury to the head, is the most common form of acqui...

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the biggest cause of death and disability in children and young people. TBI compromises important neurological functions for self-regulation and social behavior and increases risk of behavioral disorder and psychiatric morbidity. Crime in young people is a major social issue. “Early starters” often continue for a lif...

A concerted effort to tackle the global health problem posed by traumatic brain injury (TBI) is long overdue. TBI is a public health challenge of vast, but insufficiently recognised, proportions. Worldwide, more than 50 million people have a TBI each year, and it is estimated that about half the world’s population will have one or more TBIs over th...

A concerted effort to tackle the global health problem posed by traumatic brain injury (TBI) is long overdue. TBI is a public health challenge of vast, but insufficiently recognised, proportions. Worldwide, more than 50 million people have a TBI each year, and it is estimated that about half the world's population will have one or more TBIs over th...

A concerted e ort to tackle the global health problem posed by traumatic brain injury (TBI) is long overdue. TBI is a public health challenge of vast, but insu ciently recognised, proportions. Worldwide, more than 50 million people have a TBI each year, and it is estimated that about half the world’s population will have one or more TBIs over their...

A range of functions can be negatively affected by Pre-frontal cortex (PFC) injury, but observed behavioural and social changes are commonly linked to post-injury changes in executive function. Executive functioning is a complex neuropsychological construct which is further complicated by neuro-developmental processes when applied to children. Ther...

Given the established association between foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and risk of criminality and criminalisation, this systematic review examines the prevalence of FASD within youth justice systems. Four relevant sources were identified. Each source suggests a disproportionate prevalence in comparison to the general youth population....

To examine the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) among young people in custody and to compare this with estimates within the general youth population. Systematic review of research from various national contexts. Included studies were assessed for the relevance of the definition of TBI and the research population, and the quality of the st...

Young people in contact with the youth juvenile justice system have well-documented vulnerabilities including high rates of mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders. Studies have suggested that they may also be at increased risk of traumatic brain injury (TBI). (1) To describe the profile of a cohort of juvenile offenders with TBI and associa...

Objectives: To examine the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) among young people in custody and to compare this with estimates within the general youth population. Design: Systematic review of research from various national contexts. Included studies were assessed for the relevance of the definition of TBI and the research population, and t...

Background: Rugby Union, a popular full-contact sport played throughout the world, has one of the highest rates of concussion of all full-contact sports. Objective: The aim of the current review was to systematically evaluate the available evidence on concussion in Rugby Union and to conduct a meta-analysis of findings regarding the incidence of...

Background and ScopeIn this article, we provide a brief overview of the principles that guide paediatric neuropsychological assessment, the methods used and some examples of the measures available. FindingsWe explore intellectual, adaptive and social functioning from a neuropsychological perspective and describe suitable measures for use in paediat...

Head injuries across all age groups represent an extremely common emergency department (ED) presentation. The main focus of initial assessment and management rightly concentrates on the need to exclude significant pathology, that may or may not require neurosurgical intervention. Relatively little focus, however, is given to the potential for devel...

Sports-related concussion (SRC) is typically associated with functional, as opposed to structural, injury. The results of traditional structural neuroimaging techniques used to assess SRC tend to be normal in many athletes, and are only clinically helpful in ruling out a more serious injury. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has increasingly been tout...

Objectives: As provenance of postconcussion symptoms after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is controversial, with similar rates found in other populations, we aimed to identify postconcussion symptoms specific to mTBI compared with controls. We also compared differences between complicated and uncomplicated mTBIs. Setting: Hospital emergency...

The effects of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) typically resolve within days or weeks. However, a significant group of patients can report Persistent Concussional Symptoms (PCS). They may report a range of symptoms weeks, months and years post-injury. This review presents an overview of the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment options for mTBI...

To determine the prevalence rate of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in incarcerated youth and whether frequency and severity of TBI are associated with postconcussion symptoms (PCS), violent offending behaviors, age of first conviction, and substance abuse. Sixty-one incarcerated male juvenile offenders with an average age of 16 years. Self-rated meas...

Objectives. The costs associated with traumatic injury are often exacerbated by the development of post-traumatic stress symptoms. However, it is unclear what decreases the development of post-traumatic symptoms over time. The aim of the present research was to examine the role of psychological symptoms and social group memberships in reducing the...

Following an extensive, structured literature review of research from a variety of academic disciplines, as well as evidence published by key health and justice organisations and government departments, the report compare the rates of specific neurodevelopmental disorders amongst young people in custodial institutions to those within the general yo...

Difficulties with attention contribute to behavioural and cognitive problems during childhood and may reflect subtle deficits in executive functioning (EF). Attention problems in early childhood have also been found to predict higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms at 10 years old. It has also been reported that attention problems during...

Social and emotional impairments are frequently reported following acquired brain injury, including an inability to adopt another's perspective, empathize, and display guilt, and inappropriate social conduct. Case studies suggest that these problems are particularly apparent when the injury is sustained in childhood, with deficits increasing with a...

Acquired brain injury (ABI) during childhood can be associated with enduring difficulties related to impairments to executive functioning (EF). EF impairments may detrimentally affect outcome by restricting an individual's ability to access 'resiliency' resources after ABI. The purpose of this study was to explore whether there is deterioration in...

Children with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) commonly present with socioemotional difficulties, as well as accompanying multiple cognitive impairments. Often difficulties worsen at around 10 years old. This change is associated with frontal system changes, and tests of executive function (EF) predict outcome. However, children with TBI sometimes pr...

Symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury typically resolve within days or weeks. However, a significant group of patients may report symptoms of Post-concussional Syndrome (PCS) weeks, months and years postinjury. This review presents an overview of the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment options for PCS. The authors review the evidence for factor...

Positive peer relationships are essential in healthy development. The prevalence of peer-relationship problems in children after acquired brain injury (ABI) has yet to be explored, although ABI does inevitably impact upon peer interactions. We aimed to explore how peer-relationships and emotional distress after ABI may differ from the levels report...

Adolescence is a risk period for offending and for traumatic brain injury (TBI) and TBI is a risk factor for poor mental health and for offending. TBI has been largely neglected from guidance on managing the mental health needs of young offenders. We sought to determine the rate of self-reported TBI, of various severities, in a male, adolescent you...

TBI can lead to cognitive, behavioural and emotional difficulties. Previous studies suggest that TBI is relatively elevated in offender populations. In this study the aims were to establish the rate of TBI of various severities in a representative sample of adult offenders and patterns of custody associated with TBI. A self-report survey of adult,...

To investigate the attitudes of healthcare professionals towards individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their relationship to intended healthcare behaviour. An independent groups design utilized four independent variables; aetiology, group, blame and gender to explore attitudes towards survivors of brain injury. The dependent variables w...

This study examined the roles of personal and social changes on the relationship between injury severity and life satisfaction among individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI). Personal change (i.e. having developed a survivor identity, identity strength), social changes (i.e. improved social relationships, support from services), injury severity...

Introduction: Most people who suffer serious traumatic brain injury (TBI) have a period of loss of consciousness and post-traumatic amnesia that typically means that they do not recall the moment of injury itself. They may also have a gap in memory stretching from some time prior to injury to some time after the injury. Therefore despite going thro...

IntroductionThe Nature of Human MemoryPost-Traumatic AmnesiaCharacteristics of Memory ImpairmentAssessment of Memory FunctioningSummary and Conclusions References

Lasting socio-emotional behaviour difficulties are common among children who have suffered brain injuries. A proportion of difficulties may be attributed to impaired cognitive and/or executive skills after injury. A recent and rapidly accruing body of literature indicates that deficits in recognizing and responding to the emotions of others are als...

As children with acquired brain injuries (ABI) mature to become adolescents they develop a range of previously undetected social and emotional difficulties, which are commonly associated with executive dysfunctions. The authors wanted to determine whether visual-spatial performance is subject to age-related improvement, whether such skills can diff...

Lasting socio-emotional behaviour difficulties are common among children who have suffered brain injuries. A proportion of difficulties may be attributed to impaired cognitive and/or executive skills after injury. A recent and rapidly accruing body of literature indicates that deficits in recognizing and responding to the emotions of others are als...

A survey study of patients recovering from stroke (N = 53) examined the extent to which belonging to multiple groups prior to stroke and the maintenance of those group memberships (as measured by the Exeter Identity Transitions Scales, EXITS) predicted well-being after stroke. Results of correlation analysis showed that life satisfaction was associ...

Recent studies show that post‐traumatic stress reactions can occur following childbirth. The role of pre‐event schema as a vulnerability factor in the development of post‐traumatic stress symptoms in childbirth has not been investigated. We aimed to determine the relationship between pre‐existing schema and interaction with previous trauma, birth e...

A previous study has shown that children with brain injuries are worse than their same age peers at reading emotions. It has not clearly been established that cognitive impairments and emotion processing impairments are dissociable in children and the question of whether emotion-reading skills can be selectively impaired in children after brain inj...

In everyday adolescent communication, the ability to empathise with the mental state of others, recognise or infer intentions, or make judgements about emotional state, is a non-conscious but vital prerequisite of relating. Execution of these skills in social interactions supports both the exchange of social knowledge and also the development and m...

Individuals with acquired brain injuries (ABI) often experience depression following injury, with estimated rates between 20 and 40% within the first year and up to 50% thereafter (Fleminger et al., 2003). Previous studies with non-brain-injured individuals have identified that rumination is prevalent in both the development and maintenance of depr...

Lasting emotional and social communication deficits are common among children who have suffered brain injury. Concerns have been raised that current assessment and treatment methods are inadequate in addressing the needs of such children in rehabilitation. We advocate that a proportion of reported deficits occur as a result of compromise to emotion...

Acute encephalitis is an inflammation of brain tissue that can result from activity in the central nervous system (CNS) of a number of viruses. Although the neurological and psychiatric effects of encephalitis in the acute phase of the illness are well-known (Caroff, Mann, Gliatto, Sullivan, & Campbell, 2001), larger scale studies of the pattern of...

This study presents an exploration of the impact of childhood encephalitis on parental mood, coping and disciplinary strategies. Thirty six parents of children aged between 10 and 17 years were recruited. They were split into groups of recent and remote cases (within or beyond 7 years). Group comparison revealed that neurobehavioural consequences o...

Previous research has considered the presence of grief reactions following traumatic brain injury, the way loss is perceived, and the strategies used in adjustment. A qualitative approach was employed to investigate the experiences of seven adults with a severe traumatic brain injury. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis yielded findings hig...

Child brain injury can have a lasting, detrimental effect upon socio-emotional behaviour, but little is known about underlying impairments that cause behavioural disturbance. This study explored the possibility that a proportion of difficulties result from compromise to systems in the brain which function in reading emotion in others from eyes, fac...

Little is known about how emotion recognition abilities develop during childhood and adolescence, although adolescence is a time marked by significant changes in socio-emotional behaviour. The first aim of this study was to explore the range of emotion recognition skills that 9-15-year olds would normally display and whether emotion-reading skills...

Spousal relationships following brain injury are particularly vulnerable to strain and breakdown. Changes in personality and socio-emotional processing and behaviour have been implicated as causal factors. We examined spousal relationship satisfaction following an acquired brain injury to one partner. Couples affected by chronic pain and a group of...

Single and repeat concussions have a high prevalence in sport. However, there is limited research into longterm risks associated with single and repeat concussions. To determine the effects of single and repeat historical concussions on the neuropsychological functioning and neurological reports of licensed jockeys. Six hundred and ninety eight lic...

We aimed to identify the attendance rate for all head injuries, and for moderate to severe head injury (MSHI), in an emergency department (ED), and related risk factors for MSHI, including age, sex, area of residence, and socioeconomic status (SES). This was a retrospective descriptive epidemiological study of an ED database of head injury attendan...

Biological aspects of depression after brain injury, in particular traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke, are reviewed. Symptoms of depression after brain injury are found to be rather non-specific with no good evidence of a clear pattern distinguishing it from depression in those without brain injury. Nevertheless symptoms of disturbances of int...

Survivors of acquired and traumatic brain injuries may often experience anxiety states. Psychological reactions to neurological trauma may be caused by a complex interaction of a host of factors. We explore how anxiety states may be understood in terms of a biopsychosocial formulation of such factors. We also review the current evidence for the pre...

In this paper we explore the evidence for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after traumatic brain injury (TBI). We examine its possible mediating mechanisms after brain injury, the evidence for its occurrence, risk, and protective factors, and the implications for intervention and service demands. In the first section we review the current lite...

Survivors of acquired brain injury (ABI) are at risk of a range of neuropsychiatric and behavioural disorders. Emotional disturbance, with reactive elements of mood disorder, such as depression and anxiety, appear particularly common. Specific anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have also been identified. Pain syndromes...

We present two cases to illustrate the assessment and management of post-traumatic stress disorder (PtSD) in the context of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Case KE suffered a TBI in a road traffic accident (RTA) in which his girlfriend was killed. Case CM survived a penetrating neurological injury from a severe knife attack. Both suffered cognitive d...

We investigated the relationship between the reporting of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a community sample of 66 survivors of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and measures of injury severity, memory, insight, and index-event attributions. Correlational analyses revealed that reporting of PTSD symptoms was related to level o...

In this study, the authors investigated the prevalence of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a community sample of 66 survivors of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). RESEARCH DESIGN, METHODS AND PROCEDURES: A representative sample of survivors of TBI were selected on the basis of having suffered significant disturbance in consci...