NCT00927576

PC-Based Cognitive Rehabilitation for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

PC-Based Cognitive Rehabilitation for TBI

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 265 (actual)
• Sponsor: US Department of Veterans Affairs · Federal
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 78 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The investigators evaluated whether it was possible to improve the measurement of memory, attention, and executive function in patients who have suffered traumatic brain injury through the use of computer-based testing. Note: the original design of the study was altered due to failure to recruit sufficient numbers of patients who were willing to undergo prolonged cognitive training.

Detailed description

Here we describe a series of computer-based tests that were used to evaluate memory, attention, and executive function in large groups of control subjects and in patients with chronic mild and moderate/severe TBI. This extensive battery of neuropsychological tests (NPTs) and subjective rating scale measures were obtained at study entry from the TBI cohort. NPT and rating scale data were compared to those obtained from control subjects to characterize the cognitive deficits following mild, moderate and severe TBI. . Normative data were obtained by regressing the influences of age, education, and computer use on scores to create normed z-scores on different NPTs,. We hypothesized that patient with TBI would show deficits on tests of memory, attention, and executive function relative to their predicted z-scores (based on the aforementioned regression functions) and that deficits would be more pronounced in patients with severe TBI than in patients with mild TBI.

Conditions

• Traumatic Brain Injury

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Digit span testing	Testing of short-term verbal memory with digit span
BEHAVIORAL	Spatial span testing	Testing of short-term visuospatial memory with spatial span.
BEHAVIORAL	Finger tapping	Testing motor speed with a finger tapping test.
BEHAVIORAL	Simple reaction time	Testing the time to respond to the appearance of a visual stimulus.
BEHAVIORAL	Choice reaction time	Testing the time needed to discriminate and respond to different visual stimuli.
BEHAVIORAL	Verbal fluency	Evaluating how many words are produced in 90s.
BEHAVIORAL	Verbal list learning	Evaluating short-term memory, learning, and memory interference in the recall of 12-word lists, presented three times. Evaluating long-term memory and recognition after a 20 min interval.
BEHAVIORAL	Trail making test	Evaluating visuomotor speed and executive function in Trail Making Tests, A and B. In the first, subjects connect successive numbers with the mouse. In the second, they connect numbers and letters in alternation.
BEHAVIORAL	Design fluency	Subjects create the maximal number of 4-line patterns in 90 s.
BEHAVIORAL	Questionnaire completion	Question completion time is measured on each question of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder check list (PCL) and on the cognitive failures questionnaire.

Timeline

• Start date: 2009-07-01
• Primary completion: 2013-03-01
• Completion: 2013-03-01
• First posted: 2009-06-25
• Last updated: 2015-07-31
• Results posted: 2015-07-31