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Instructional Course 3

Tracks
Breakout 2
Thursday, October 8, 2026
5:00 PM - 6:15 PM

Overview

Spinal cord injury and cognitive function: impacts on adaptation following injury and strategies for managing cognitive impairment


Details

Adults with spinal cord injury (SCI) have 13 times greater risk of cognitive impairment (CI) which is a key risk factor for poor rehabilitation outcomes, like depression, chronic pain and cardiovascular disorders. We present results of prospective research on CI assessed in the sub-acute stage up to 12-months post-SCI. We also present CI guidelines used in SCI Units and also present perceptions of length of stay in intensive rehabilitation in relation to CI.


Presenter (only the submitting author is listed below; co-presenters, where applicable, will be listed in the conference app)

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Prof Ashley Craig
Professor
The University Of Sydney

Spinal cord injury and cognitive function: impacts on adaptation following injury and strategies for managing cognitive impairment

Biography

Dr Ashley Craig is the Professor of Rehabilitation Studies, Head of JWCRR, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney and a senior researcher in the Kolling Institute, Royal North Shore Hospital. He is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and a Fellow in the Clinical College of the APS. He is also a senior clinical psychologist with over 30 years of clinical practice, primarily in the area of traumatic injury and psychological injuries like PTSD, depression, chronic pain, cognitive impairment and panic disorder. He has published over 350 scientific journal papers, books and book chapters and his work has been cited over 21,500 times (Google Scholar). His H-index is 74. He has won over $55 million in research funding. Major sources of funding include the Australian Research Council, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), icare NSW, and the NSW Ministry of Health (MOH). He currently holds 4 NHMRC grants, 2 MOH grants and a National Institute of Health (USA) grant. His research has focused on psychosocial impacts of injuries such as SCI, developing guidelines for treatment for SCI, clinical treatments for mental health disorder, fatigue, chronic pain, cognitive impairment and autonomic dysfunction. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (honoris causa) in 2004 from South Western University for his work in neurological disorders and he is only the second Australian to have been invited to deliver the prestigious Guttmann Lecture at an ISCoS international conference (Edinburgh, 2023).
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