Linking Symptom Inventories Using Semantic Textual Similarity

Eamonn Kennedy^{1

2

3}, Shashank Vadlamani^{1

3}, Hannah M Lindsey^{1

2}, Kelly S Peterson^{3

4}, Kristen Dams O'Connor^{5

6}, Ronak Agarwal¹, Houshang H Amiri^{7

8}, Raeda K Andersen^{9

10}, Talin Babikian^{11

12}, David A Baron¹³, Erin D Bigler^{1

14

15}, Karen Caeyenberghs¹⁶, Lisa Delano-Wood^{17

18}, Seth G Disner^{19

20}, Ekaterina Dobryakova^{21

22}, Blessen C Eapen^{23

24}, Rachel M Edelstein²⁵, Carrie Esopenko⁵, Helen M Genova²⁶, Elbert Geuze²⁷, Naomi J Goodrich-Hunsaker¹, Jordan Grafman^{28

29}, Asta K Håberg^{30

31}, Cooper B Hodges³², Kristen R Hoskinson^{33

34}, Elizabeth S Hovenden¹, Andrei Irimia^{35

36

37}, Neda Jahanshad³⁸, Ruchira M Jha³⁹, Finian Keleher¹, Kimbra Kenney^{40

41}, Inga K Koerte^{42

43}, Spencer W Liebel¹, Abigail Livny^{44

45}, Marianne Løvstad^{46

47}, Sarah L Martindale^{48

49}, Jeffrey E Max⁵⁰, Andrew R Mayer⁵¹, Timothy B Meier⁵², Deleene S Menefee^{53

54}, Abdalla Z Mohamed⁵⁵, Stefania Mondello⁵⁶, Martin M Monti^{57

58}, Rajendra A Morey^{59

60}, Virginia Newcombe⁶¹, Mary R Newsome^{1

2}, Alexander Olsen^{62

63

64}, Nicholas J Pastorek^{53

65}, Mary Jo Pugh^{66

67}, Adeel Razi^{68

69

70}, Jacob E Resch⁷¹, Jared A Rowland^{48

72

73}, Kelly Russell^{74

75}, Nicholas P Ryan^{16

76}, Randall S Scheibel^{53

65}, Adam T Schmidt^{77

78}, Gershon Spitz^{79

80}, Jaclyn A Stephens^{81

82}, Assaf Tal⁸³, Leah D Talbert³², Maria Carmela Tartaglia^{84

85}, Brian A Taylor⁸⁶, Sophia I Thomopoulos³⁸, Maya Troyanskaya^{53

65}, Eve M Valera^{87

88}, Harm Jan van der Horn⁵¹, John D Van Horn⁸⁹, Ragini Verma^{90

91}, Benjamin S C Wade⁹², Willian C Walker^{93

94}, Ashley L Ware^{95

96}, J Kent Werner Jr⁴⁰, Keith Owen Yeates⁹⁷, Ross D Zafonte^{98

99}, Michael M Zeineh¹⁰⁰, Brandon Zielinski^{1

101

102}, Paul M Thompson^{38

103}, Frank G Hillary^{104

105}, David F Tate^{1

2}, Elisabeth A Wilde^{1

2}, Emily L Dennis^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
² George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
³ Division of Epidemiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
⁴ Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Analytics and Performance Integration (VHA), Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
⁵ Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
⁶ Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
⁷ Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
⁸ Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC Location VUmc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁹ Crawford Research Institute, Shepherd Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA.
¹² UCLA BrainSPORT Program, Los Angeles, California, USA.
¹³ Department of Psychiatry, Center for Behavioral Health and Sport, Western University of Health Sciences, Lebanon, Pomona, California, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
¹⁶ Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
¹⁷ VA San Diego Healthcare System; Center of Stress and Mental Health, and Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California, USA.
¹⁹ Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
²⁰ Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
²¹ Center for Traumatic Brain Injury, Kessler Foundation, East Hanover, New Jersey, USA.
²² Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey, USA.
²³ VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, Los Angeles, California, USA.
²⁴ Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA.
²⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
²⁶ Center for Autism Research, Kessler Foundation, East Hanover, New Jersey, USA.
²⁷ Ministry of Defence, Brain Research and Innovation Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
²⁸ Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
²⁹ Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
³⁰ Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.
³¹ Department for Physical Health and Aging, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
³² Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA.
³³ Center for Biobehavioral Health, Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
³⁴ Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
³⁵ Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
³⁶ Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
³⁷ Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, Dornsife College of Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
³⁸ Imaging Genetics Center, Stevens Neuroimaging & Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Marina del Rey, California, USA.
³⁹ Departments of Neurology, Translational Neuroscience, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
⁴⁰ Department of Neurology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁴¹ National Intrepid Center of Excellence, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁴² Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁴³ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany.
⁴⁴ Division of Diagnostic Imaging, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
⁴⁵ Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
⁴⁶ Sunnaas Rehabilitation Centre, Nesodden, Norway.
⁴⁷ University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁴⁸ W. G. (Bill) Hefner VA Healthcare System, Salisbury, North Carolina, USA.
⁴⁹ Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
⁵⁰ Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
⁵¹ The Mind Research Network, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
⁵² Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
⁵³ Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁵⁴ The Menning Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁵⁵ Thompson Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast, Birtinya, Australia.
⁵⁶ Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
⁵⁷ Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁵⁸ Department of Neurosurgery, Brain Injury Research Center (BIRC), University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁵⁹ Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁶⁰ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁶¹ Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁶² Department of Psychology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.
⁶³ Clinic of Rehabilitation, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway.
⁶⁴ NorHEAD - Norwegian Centre for Headache Research, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.
⁶⁵ H. Ben Taub Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁶⁶ Information Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences Center, VA Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
⁶⁷ Department of Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
⁶⁸ Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁶⁹ Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
⁷⁰ CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars Program, CIFAR, Toronto, Canada.
⁷¹ Department of Kinesiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
⁷² Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
⁷³ Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research and Education Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁷⁴ Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
⁷⁵ Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
⁷⁶ Brain and Mind Research, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Australia.
⁷⁷ Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA.
⁷⁸ Center of Excellence For Translational Neuroscience and Therapeutics, Lubbock, Texas, USA.
⁷⁹ Monash-Epworth Rehabilitation Research Centre, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁸⁰ Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁸¹ College of Health and Human Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
⁸² Molecular Cellular Integrative Neuroscience Program, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
⁸³ Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv Israel.
⁸⁴ University Health Network, Toronto, Canada.
⁸⁵ Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
⁸⁶ Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁸⁷ Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁸⁸ Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁸⁹ Department of Psychology and School of Data Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
⁹⁰ Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁹¹ Cohen Veterans Bioscience, New York City, New York, USA.
⁹² Division of Neuropsychiatry and Neuromodulation, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁹³ Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
⁹⁴ Richmond Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, Central Virginia VA Health Care System, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
⁹⁵ Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁹⁶ Department of Neurology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
⁹⁷ Department of Psychology, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
⁹⁸ Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁹⁹ Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
¹⁰⁰ Department of Radiology, Stanford University, California, USA.
¹⁰¹ Departments of Pediatrics, Neurology, and Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
¹⁰² Departments of Pediatrics, and Radiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
¹⁰³ Departments of Neurology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Radiology, Engineering, and Ophthalmology, USC, Los Angeles, California, USA.
¹⁰⁴ Department of Psychology, Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA.
¹⁰⁵ Department of Neurology, Hershey Medical Center, State College, Pennsylvania, USA.

PMID: 40200899
PMCID: PMC12169902 (available on 2026-06-04)
DOI: 10.1089/neu.2024.0301

Linking Symptom Inventories Using Semantic Textual Similarity

Eamonn Kennedy et al. J Neurotrauma. 2025 Jun.

. 2025 Jun;42(11-12):1008-1020.

doi: 10.1089/neu.2024.0301. Epub 2025 Apr 9.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
² George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
³ Division of Epidemiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
⁴ Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Analytics and Performance Integration (VHA), Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
⁵ Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
⁶ Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
⁷ Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
⁸ Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC Location VUmc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁹ Crawford Research Institute, Shepherd Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA.
¹² UCLA BrainSPORT Program, Los Angeles, California, USA.
¹³ Department of Psychiatry, Center for Behavioral Health and Sport, Western University of Health Sciences, Lebanon, Pomona, California, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
¹⁶ Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
¹⁷ VA San Diego Healthcare System; Center of Stress and Mental Health, and Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California, USA.
¹⁹ Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
²⁰ Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
²¹ Center for Traumatic Brain Injury, Kessler Foundation, East Hanover, New Jersey, USA.
²² Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey, USA.
²³ VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, Los Angeles, California, USA.
²⁴ Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA.
²⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
²⁶ Center for Autism Research, Kessler Foundation, East Hanover, New Jersey, USA.
²⁷ Ministry of Defence, Brain Research and Innovation Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
²⁸ Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
²⁹ Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
³⁰ Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.
³¹ Department for Physical Health and Aging, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
³² Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA.
³³ Center for Biobehavioral Health, Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
³⁴ Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
³⁵ Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
³⁶ Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
³⁷ Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, Dornsife College of Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
³⁸ Imaging Genetics Center, Stevens Neuroimaging & Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Marina del Rey, California, USA.
³⁹ Departments of Neurology, Translational Neuroscience, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
⁴⁰ Department of Neurology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁴¹ National Intrepid Center of Excellence, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁴² Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁴³ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany.
⁴⁴ Division of Diagnostic Imaging, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
⁴⁵ Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
⁴⁶ Sunnaas Rehabilitation Centre, Nesodden, Norway.
⁴⁷ University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁴⁸ W. G. (Bill) Hefner VA Healthcare System, Salisbury, North Carolina, USA.
⁴⁹ Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
⁵⁰ Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
⁵¹ The Mind Research Network, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
⁵² Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
⁵³ Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁵⁴ The Menning Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁵⁵ Thompson Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast, Birtinya, Australia.
⁵⁶ Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
⁵⁷ Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁵⁸ Department of Neurosurgery, Brain Injury Research Center (BIRC), University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁵⁹ Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁶⁰ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁶¹ Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁶² Department of Psychology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.
⁶³ Clinic of Rehabilitation, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway.
⁶⁴ NorHEAD - Norwegian Centre for Headache Research, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.
⁶⁵ H. Ben Taub Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁶⁶ Information Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences Center, VA Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
⁶⁷ Department of Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
⁶⁸ Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁶⁹ Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
⁷⁰ CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars Program, CIFAR, Toronto, Canada.
⁷¹ Department of Kinesiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
⁷² Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
⁷³ Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research and Education Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁷⁴ Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
⁷⁵ Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
⁷⁶ Brain and Mind Research, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Australia.
⁷⁷ Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA.
⁷⁸ Center of Excellence For Translational Neuroscience and Therapeutics, Lubbock, Texas, USA.
⁷⁹ Monash-Epworth Rehabilitation Research Centre, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁸⁰ Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁸¹ College of Health and Human Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
⁸² Molecular Cellular Integrative Neuroscience Program, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
⁸³ Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv Israel.
⁸⁴ University Health Network, Toronto, Canada.
⁸⁵ Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
⁸⁶ Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁸⁷ Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁸⁸ Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁸⁹ Department of Psychology and School of Data Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
⁹⁰ Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁹¹ Cohen Veterans Bioscience, New York City, New York, USA.
⁹² Division of Neuropsychiatry and Neuromodulation, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁹³ Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
⁹⁴ Richmond Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, Central Virginia VA Health Care System, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
⁹⁵ Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁹⁶ Department of Neurology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
⁹⁷ Department of Psychology, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
⁹⁸ Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁹⁹ Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
¹⁰⁰ Department of Radiology, Stanford University, California, USA.
¹⁰¹ Departments of Pediatrics, Neurology, and Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
¹⁰² Departments of Pediatrics, and Radiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
¹⁰³ Departments of Neurology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Radiology, Engineering, and Ophthalmology, USC, Los Angeles, California, USA.
¹⁰⁴ Department of Psychology, Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA.
¹⁰⁵ Department of Neurology, Hershey Medical Center, State College, Pennsylvania, USA.

PMID: 40200899
PMCID: PMC12169902 (available on 2026-06-04)
DOI: 10.1089/neu.2024.0301

Abstract

An extensive library of symptom inventories has been developed over time to measure clinical symptoms of traumatic brain injury (TBI), but this variety has led to several long-standing issues. Most notably, results drawn from different settings and studies are not comparable. This creates a fundamental problem in TBI diagnostics and outcome prediction, namely that it is not possible to equate results drawn from distinct tools and symptom inventories. Here, we present an approach using semantic textual similarity (STS) to link symptoms and scores across previously incongruous symptom inventories by ranking item text similarities according to their conceptual likeness. We tested the ability of four pretrained deep learning models to screen thousands of symptom description pairs for related content-a challenging task typically requiring expert panels. Models were tasked to predict symptom severity across four different inventories for 6,607 participants drawn from 16 international data sources. The STS approach achieved 74.8% accuracy across five tasks, outperforming other models tested. Correlation and factor analysis found the properties of the scales were broadly preserved under conversion. This work suggests that incorporating contextual, semantic information can assist expert decision-making processes, yielding broad gains for the harmonization of TBI assessment.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; harmonization; semantic textual similarity; symptom inventories; traumatic brain injury.

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References

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Linking Symptom Inventories Using Semantic Textual Similarity

Affiliations

Linking Symptom Inventories Using Semantic Textual Similarity

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

References

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical