Evaluation of a remedial programme for attentional deficits following closed-head injury

Although the frequency and implications of disorders of attention in head-injured subjects have been recognised in recent years, there have been few carefully controlled attempts to evaluate remedial interventions. The present study employed a multiple baseline across subjects design to evaluate a computer-mediated programme for the remediation of deficits in speed of information processing in 10 severely head-injured subjects, aged 17-38 years. Following a baseline period, the effectiveness of computer training alone was compared with that combined with therapist feedback and reinforcement in separate training phases, each lasting 3 weeks. The final phase involved a return to baseline conditions. Dependent measures of attention, taken across all phases, included psychometric measures of processing speed, a rating scale completed by the patient's Occupational Therapist, and a video of the patient working in therapy. Results suggested that, once spontaneous recovery and practice effect were controlled, the patients showed little response to the interventions in terms of the dependent measures used.