Stroke rehabilitation for cognitive defects is often called cognitive rehabilitation. A process administered by for cognitive, emotional, and behavioral impairments, cognitive rehabilitation aims to strengthen function that still remain intact after the injury, such as stroke, and to teach new skills to compensate for lost function.
Cognitive rehabilitation involves two methods: restorative and compensatory. Restorative rehabilitation helps recover brain functions that have been impaired during the stroke while compensatory rehabilitation helps cope with impairments that are likely to be permanent.
There are different distinct treatments applied depending on the deficit or consequence brought by the stroke. Thus, a different treatment is applied for Aphasia, Unilateral Spatial Neglect, Attention Disorders, Memory, and Apraxia. However, it has become common practice that a general treatment is applied for cognitive defects.
A study was actually undertaken to check the effectiveness of this approach. Conducted by Martin Rohling of the University of Alabama, the study reveals that doctors "should focus their efforts on direct cognitive skills training rather than broad generalized interventions with the expectation of subsequent generalization to broader use in the real world".
According to Rohling and his team, generalized programs appear to be less effective than treatments targeted to specific cognitive domains. The study also showed that it is better to start cognitive rehabilitation as soon as possible after injury rather than waiting for greater neurological recovery and that even patients 55 years and older can benefit from rehabilitation.
Rohling's study also revealed that among the illnesses cognitive rehab is applied to, it is only really beneficial to stroke patients as patients with traumatic brain injury showed small or no improvements at all with rehabilitation. Cognitive rehabilitation caused significant though modest treatment effects for global cognitive functions after Rohling's team analyzed 97 cases.
The specific benefits brought by cognitive rehab to stroke patients include improvements in measures of attention and executive function, visuo-spatial skills, memory, and language. In addition, patients treated within one year of stroke generally derived greater benefit from cognitive rehabilitation than those who were treated later. Thus, it is really important that stroke patients immediately undergo cognitive rehabfor better recovery.
Stroke patients commonly undergo four therapeutic modalities under cognitive rehabilitation. These are attention process exercises, psychotherapy, EEG biofeedback or neurofeedback, and counseling. Attention process exercises focus on specific circuits of the brain to optimize the patient's arousal levels and normalize various aspects of attention and concentration, including some aspects of memory.
Psychotherapy treats emotional and behavioral difficulties while neurofeedback alters brain waves and gives stroke victims the condition of their nervous system for regulation. Counseling is provided as needed to address the patient's real-world concerns.
Stroke rehabilitation for cognitive defects is an important process that should immediately be undertaken to optimize the patient's possibilities of overall recovery.
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