Patients' Complaints of Disability:

Patients' subjective reports of difficulties in carrying out daily tasks and activities often form the basis for determining the nature and extent of their disability following neurologic insults. For some neuropsychologists, these complaints may also guide their choice of specific test procedures or represent the logical environmental sequelae of specific ability deficits. Although it is clear that subjective reports of disability play an important role in the evaluation of patients, little research has been devoted to examining the actual relationship between neuropsychological functioning and complaints of disability. This paper summarizes the results of a recently completed large-scale study that attempted to evaluate these relationships (Chelune, Heaton, & Lehman, 1986). Contrary to expectations, patients' subjective complaints of disability were strongly influenced by personality factors and were relatively independent of their actual neuropsychological test performances. These findings are discusse...