Efficacy of an Executive Function Intervention Programme in MS: A Placebo-Controlled and Pseudo-Randomized Trial
By Fink, Frauke; Rischkau, Eva; Butt, Martina; Klein, Jan; Eling, Paul; Hildebrandt, Helmut; Multiple Sclerosis: Clinical and Laboratory Research, Vol. 16, No. 9, pp. 1148-1151Publication Date: September 2010
Study evaluated a program for rehabilitation of executive deficits in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Participants were patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) divided into three groups: an 11-member cognitive intervention group (CIG), a 14-member placebo group (PG), and an untreated group (UG) of 15 members. Participants in the CIG and PG participated in a 6 week intervention program. CIG participants spent 25 to 30 minutes a day, four times per week, on textbook exercises for executive functioning involving adaptation of object preferences in face of changing contingencies, response shifting involving the adaptation of response strategy to the same stimulus, and working memory. PG patients trained on 5 days for 40 minutes a day with computer controlled exercises using the reaction capacity subtest of the RehaCom computer software, wherein participants had to respond fast and accurately to visual stimuli. Executive functioning and verbal learning improved significantly more in the CIG compared to the PG. The treatment effect on verbal learning was still present at one-year follow-up. Baseline brain atrophy, quantified by the brain parenchymal fraction, was associated with treatment effects for one aspect of executive functioning.
Published by: Sage Publications (Website:http://www.sagepub.com)
Link to text: http://msj.sagepub.com/content/16/9/1148.abstract
