Interpreting WAIS-III performance after primary brain tumor surgery

ABSTRACT

The literature lacks information on the performance of patients with brain tumors on the Wechsler Intelligence Scales. This study aimed to explore the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III) performance profile of 23 consecutive patients with brain tumors and 23 matched controls selected from the Portuguese WAIS-III standardization sample, using the technical manual steps recommended for score interpretation. The control group was demographically matched to the tumor group regarding gender, age, education, profession, and geographic region. The technical manual steps recommended for score interpretation were applied. Patients with brain tumors had significantly lower performances on the Performance IQ, Full-Scale IQ, Perceptual Organization Index, Working Memory Index, Processing Speed Index, Arithmetic, Object Assembly, and Picture Arrangement, though all scaled scores were within the normal range according to the manual tables. Only Vocabulary and Comprehension scatter scores were statistically different between groups. No strengths or weaknesses were found for either group. The mean discrepancy scores do not appear to have clinical value for this population. In conclusion, the study results did not reveal a specific profile for patients with brain tumors on the WAIS-III.

KEYWORDS:

• Brain tumor
• intelligence
• profile scores
• review WAIS-III

Acknowledgments

Thank you to each neurologist who selected the participants: Ana Azevedo, José Maria Bravo-Marques, Ilda Costa, João Nunes, Teresa Pimentel, and Vanessa Silva. A special thank you goes to José Maria Bravo-Marques and Maria de Jesus Moura for supervising the work of the first author during the time she was collecting data in the hospital.

Thank you to CEGOC-TEA Portugal for the materials and the control group, data selected from the Portuguese standardization sample. A special thanks to Carla Ferreira for all the technical support.

Thank you to the University of Évora Psychology Department, where Marta A. Gonçalves worked during data collection.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundação Ciência e Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology): Doctoral Scholarship, Grant No. SFRH/BD/68842/2010.