Objective of the present study is to identify the role of a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in referring to sexual disorders and their possible impact on the couple relationship.

The results of the study will be presented in referring to a cohort of 20 severe TBI patients (GCS < 8) and their relatives (experimental group) and to a cohort of 20 control couples (without history a of TBI and comparable to the experimental group for socio-demographic and duration of the couple relationship) (control group). The two groups will be evaluated by means of a perspective and retrospective analysis. The Sexrelation Evaluation Schedule Assesment Monitoring - SESAMO (Boccadoro e Perillo.,1996), and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (Hamilton et al., 1960), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI, Spielberger et al., 1983) and the Neuropsychiatryc Inventory (NPI) (Cummings et al., 1994) will be administered to all subject in order to evaluate, respectively, the sexual, mood and behavioural disorders. Moreover, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) (Heaton et al., 1993) will be administered to the TBI patients in order to evaluate some aspects of the executive functions, as well as Community International Questionnaire (CIQ) () will investigate the social reintegration.

The final purpose of the present study is to identify the eventual patientʼs sexual disorders and their role in impairing an adequate familiar and social re-integration.