The proposed project is a two-year study in which adults with chronic traumatic brain injury (TBI) will be trained over the telephone to improve everyday memory problems using an errorless training procedure, Spaced-Retrieval (SR). SR involves practice at successfully remembering target information at increasingly longer time intervals. In a pilot study conducted at Florida State University, when therapists implemented SR therapy over the telephone, clients easily mastered targeted goals and reported generalization to other memory-related problems. The proposed study is designed to replicate these findings in a controlled efficacy study with a larger sample across settings. Two research sites, one in Tallahassee, Florida, and another in metropolitan Cleveland, Ohio, will each recruit 20 clients with chronic TBI to participate in an experimental investigation of the effects of SR training delivered over the phone on everyday memory problems. The treatment group will receive SR training on 3 memory-related goals and the control group will receive attention-control telephone calls.
Specific aims of the study are to assess the extent to which SR delivered by phone (1) produces efficient goal mastery, (2) enhances maintenance of therapy goals, and (3) produces generalized effects on other related everyday memory problems. Participants will be assessed before therapy begins, at the end of therapy, and after one month. Treatment and control groups will be compared on measures of everyday memory problems, memory self-efficacy, and quality of life. Positive study outcomes will provide clinicians with a novel strategy for addressing the lack of generalized effects of current memory and cognitive rehabilitation techniques for persons with chronic TBI. The data generated from this study will serve as the basis of an R01 submission. This proposal represents a significant change in research direction for Dr. Bourgeois. Her career to date has focused on patients with dementia and their caregivers. Despite similarities in the types of memory problems experienced by persons with brain injuries and dementia, the etiology of the neurological damage and the subsequent course of recovery or degenerative process of the two disorders are sufficiently different that the transfer of intervention strategies from one population to the other is not guaranteed. This exploratory project will provide an opportunity to gain firsthand experience with clients with TBI and with a co-investigator knowledgeable in TBI. ? ?
| Bourgeois, Michelle S; Lenius, Kerry; Turkstra, Lyn et al. (2007) The effects of cognitive teletherapy on reported everyday memory behaviours of persons with chronic traumatic brain injury. Brain Inj 21:1245-57 |
