Zaburzenia funkcji wykonawczych po udarze mózgu – możliwości i ograniczenia diagnozy

Purpose
A variety of neuropsychological symptoms, including executive dysfunction, are common consequences of a stroke. However, as demonstrated in literature reviews, there are still several unclear issues in this area. This article, therefore, provides description of specific components of executive dysfunction in stroke patients together with principles of their diagnosis.

Views
Cerebral stroke is one of the most common causes of disability, with a devastating impact on the daily functioning of patients. Some of its common consequences are cognitive and behavioural disorders. Comorbid symptoms include premorbid personality changes and emotional disorders. A relatively new diagnostic category of post-stroke symptoms is the dysexecutive syndrome. It involves a variety of symptoms, such as ineffective performance, perseveration, rigidity of thought or impaired planning and predicting the consequences of one’s actions. The dysexecutive syndrome is not a homogenous syndrome, and many researchers postulate its division into subunits, depending on the predominant symptoms.

Conclusions
Executive dysfunction after stroke is an important clinical and social problem. Impaired performance of complex tasks or deficits within planning or reasoning have a marked effect on patients’ social and professional functioning. The theoretical notion of dysexecutive syndrome may allow to better understand the scope and nature of patients’ problems and implementation of more effective forms of neuropsychological rehabilitation.