Affiliations: [a] Department Personalidad, Evaluación y Tratamiento Psicológico, Granada, Spain | [b] Instituto de Neurociencias F. Olóriz, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain | [c] Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves, Granada, Spain | Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Alfonso Caracuel, Facultad de Psicología, Campus de Cartuja, 18071, Granada, Spain. Tel.: +34 958 242948; Fax: +34 958 243749; E-mail: acaracuel@ugr.es
Abstract: Introduction:The Rasch model is increasingly used in the field of rehabilitation because it improves the accuracy of measurements of patient status and their changes after therapy. Objective:To determine the long-term effectiveness of a holistic neuropsychological rehabilitation program for Spanish outpatients with acquired brain injury (ABI) using Rasch analysis. Methods:Eighteen patients (ten with long evolution – patients who started the program >6 months after ABI- and eight with short evolution) and their relatives attended the program for 6 months. Patients’ and relatives’ answers to the European Brain Injury Questionnaire and the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale at 3 time points (pre-intervention. post-intervention and 12 month follow-up) were transformed into linear measures called logits. Results:The linear measures revealed significant improvements with large effects at the follow-up assessment on cognitive and executive functioning, social and emotional self-regulation, apathy and mood. At follow-up, the short evolution group achieved greater improvements in mood and cognitive functioning than the long evolution patients. Conclusions:The program showed long-term effectiveness for most of the variables, and it was more effective for mood and cognitive functioning when patients were treated early. Relatives played a key role in the effectiveness of the rehabilitation program.
