How can we anticipate failure in resuming vocational training following brain injury? A retrospective study

Introduction/Background Seventy-five percent of people with an acquired brain injury are of working age, most of them are young adults who want to return-to-work or need to resume a vocational training. However, a failure in returning to work/vocational training is associated with depression and isolation. Our aim was to identify objective measures to allow clinicians to anticipate failure in resuming vocational training following a brain injury. Material and method Neuropsychological data from 343 patients with brain injury, who benefited from a vocational rehabilitation program (UEROS Lille, France) between 2002 and 2017, were retrospectively analyzed. After completing this program, 28 patients resumed a vocational training and we identified, trough machine learning algorithms, the neuropsychological measures predicting vocational outcome. Results Success in resuming vocational training after brain injury was predicted by mnemonic scores (verbal forgetting and visual retrieval). The scores obtained on the Tower of London test predicted both success and failure. Conclusion Our study highlighted that neuropsychological measures underlying planning abilities could help clinicians to anticipate a failure in resuming vocational training in patients with brain injury. Planning and memory abilities would predict an effective vocational outcome. These initial results, that need to be confirmed with larger samples of patients with brain injury who resumed vocational training, may have a relevant implication for neuropsychological practice, allowing a better vocational guidance of these patients.