B - 92 Memory Rehabilitation Following Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract Objective Several Meta analyses suggest mixed but objective support for internal strategies. Typically, successful rehabilitation involves at least 8 hour of memory training and often results in 0.25 to 0.50 standard deviation (SD) improvements depending on how long post injury. Intervention dose, strategies, level of impairment, and patient self-awareness and motivation all appear relevant. Methods Data is taken from 21 continuous referrals. Three individuals did not want to work on memory strategies, so their data was separated from the rest. Participants: 18 individuals with acquired brain injuries, with an average age of 51.6 and about 15 years of education, who were 76.6 days post brain injury. Intervention: Each individual was involved in 8 weeks of transdisciplinary rehabilitation. Many goals were addressed and memory rehabilitation was treated via 1 or 2 weekly sessions with a neuropsychologist. Internal and external strategy use was taught. Individuals received 8 to 10 hours of memory rehabilitation involving repetitive practice of clustering, semantic clustering, organizing information into sentences or stories, rhyming, and acronyms. Results Delayed List Recall significantly improved from standard scores of 73.5 to 89.7 and the delayed Story Recall improved from 75 to 90. The mean improvement was nearly 1 standard deviation across measures. Conclusions Individuals showed significant improvement in immediate and delayed recall memory scores. These individuals showed more than 0.5 SD short-term memory (STM) gain and also self-reported improved STM. Durability of gains was not measured in follow-ups. These interventions improve memory skills, but not all patients choose to participate in this type of treatment.