The effectiveness of traumatic brain injury rehabilitation: a review

The rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury (TBI) has undergone tremendous development over the past 20 years. A much more aggressive, extended and comprehensive approach is now common and clinically accepted. Multiple new forms and sites of treatment are utilized such as cognitive, behavioural, sub-acute and post-acute rehabilitation programmes. While there has been widespread clinical acceptance of these treatments the appearance of well-designed experimental or quasi-experimental studies actually evaluating the results of such treatment have been, until recently, generally lacking. This review article selects, analyses, and critiques the most salient of recent studies published regarding the overall clinical benefit, and to some extent the cost benefit, of TBI treatment programmes in their multiple forms. A conclusion which is reached following this survey is that while truly randomized controlled studies still have not been achieved, an impressive variety of studies of quasi-experimental design have been completed. The overall conclusion from these studies is that the efficacy (and cost-effectiveness) of TBI rehabilitation is strongly supported.