Abstract
Cognition is one of our most important attributes. Arresting its decline, whether
in association with normal aging or a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, acquired
brain injury, or dementia, concerns everyone, regardless of whether their role is
that of spouse, child, or clinician. This article provides a brief, and by necessity,
somewhat superficial appraisal of the status of our knowledge of the benefits of cognitive
rehabilitation in these conditions and the authors' assessment of its strengths and
weaknesses. In summary, there is support for the belief that participation in exercise
as well as socially and cognitively stimulating activities (whether or not rehabilitative
in nature) is beneficial for all but perhaps those with the most severe dementia.
Focused efforts at cognitive training/rehabilitation also appear potentially helpful
but are best established for those with acquired brain injury. There are, however,
caveats to this assessment. For example, cognitive retraining is resource and time
intensive while, even for those most likely to benefit, its impact on their daily
activities and quality of life remains unclear. In addition, responses to training
may vary from person to person and are likely to be influenced by factors such as
an individual's acceptance of the need for assistance. Future research may benefit
from continued efforts to treat the patient holistically, fit the treatment to those
most likely to benefit, and encouraging the translation of training effects to functioning
in the real world.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
ABI (acquired brain injury), MCI (mild cognitive impairment)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 07, 2015
Footnotes
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
