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A thorough understanding of the relationship between cognitive test performance and symptoms of depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) is important given the high prevalence of these emotional symptoms following injury. It is also important to understand whether these relationships are affected by TBI severity, and the validity of test performance and symptom report. This meta-analysis was conducted to investigate whether these symptoms are associated with cognitive test performance alterations in adults with a TBI. This meta-analysis was prospectively registered on the PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews website (registration number: CRD42018089194). The electronic databases Medline, PsycINFO, and CINAHL were searched for journal articles published up until May 2020. In total, 61 studies were included, which enabled calculation of pooled effect sizes for the cognitive domains of immediate memory (verbal and visual), recent memory (verbal and visual), attention, executive function, processing speed, and language. Depression had a small, negative relationship with most cognitive domains. These relationships remained, for the most part, when samples with mild TBI (mTBI)-only were analysed separately, but not for samples with more severe TBI (sTBI)-only. A similar pattern of results was found in the anxiety analysis. PTSD had a small, negative relationship with verbal memory, in samples with mTBI-only. No data were available for the PTSD analysis with sTBI samples. Moderator analyses indicated that the relationships between emotional symptoms and cognitive test performance may be impacted to some degree by exclusion of participants with atypical performance on performance validity tests (PVTs) or symptom validity tests (SVTs), however there were small study numbers and changes in effect size were not statistically significant. These findings are useful in synthesising what is currently known about the relationship between cognitive test performance and emotional symptoms in adults with TBI, demonstrating significant, albeit small, relationships between emotional symptoms and cognitive test performance in multiple domains, in non-military samples. Some of these relationships appeared to be mildly impacted by controlling for performance validity or symptom validity, however this was based on the relatively few studies using validity tests. More research including PVTs and SVTs whilst examining the relationship between emotional symptoms and cognitive outcomes is needed., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

While a significant proportion of the population suffer from migraine, the existing research literature does not provide a clear indication as to whether migraineurs experience objective cognitive deficits outside of acute migraine attacks. This meta-analysis was conducted to investigate which cognitive domains if any were affected by migraine, by synthesising the existing research quantitatively. The meta-analysis was prospectively registered with the PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews (registration no.: CRD42019134138). A search of the electronic databases PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and PsycINFO was conducted for journal articles published between January 1980 and January 2020. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria, allowing for the calculation of pooled effect sizes between migraineurs (with and without aura) and healthy controls in the several cognitive domains. During the interictal period, migraineurs demonstrated a moderate, negative effect on complex attention immediate and delayed memory, spatial cognition, and executive functioning. This effect was not attributable to migraine history, attack frequency, or participant age. However, the lack of performance validity testing, and limited data on mood symptomatology and migraine medication use in the included studies may be confounds potentially overestimating the magnitude of effect. Comparison with a clinical control group, which may have accounted for some these extraneous variables, was unable to be conducted. Recommendations for comprehensive future neuropsychological research are provided., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

A thorough understanding of the cognitive effects of corticosteroids is essential given their frequency of use. This meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of corticosteroids on the various domains of cognitive functioning, grouped by duration of use. An electronic search of PsycInfo, Medline and Google Scholar was conducted for all journal articles published between January 1990 and May 2018. Twenty six studies were included enabling calculation of standardised mean difference (SMD) using a random effects model for the cognitive domains of divided attention, executive function, expressive language, immediate memory, processing speed, recent memory, sustained attention, very long term memory and working memory. Results revealed that corticosteroids had a modest, negative effect on executive function for acute users, recent memory for short term and chronic users, and very long term memory for acute users. Corticosteroids had a small, significant, positive effect on expressive language for short term users.

A thorough understanding of the cognitive effects of antidepressant medications is essential given their frequency of use. This meta-analysis was conducted to investigate whether antidepressants differentially affect the various domains of cognitive functioning for depressed and non-depressed participants. An electronic search of PsycInfo, Medline and Google Scholar was conducted for all journal articles published between January 1998 and January 2017. Thirty-three studies were included enabling calculation of Hedges' g using a random effects model for the cognitive domains of divided attention, executive function, expressive language, immediate memory, perceptual motor skills, processing speed, recent memory, sustained attention, visuospatial-constructional skills and working memory. Results revealed that overall, antidepressants have a modest, positive effect on divided attention, executive function, immediate memory, processing speed, recent memory and sustained attention for depressed participants. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's) were found to have the greatest positive effect on cognition for depressed participants, as compared to the other classes of antidepressants analysed. Antidepressants did not significantly affect cognitive function in non-depressed participants.