Benefits of categorization training in patients with traumatic brain injury during post-acute rehabilitation: additional evidence from a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Preliminary research with the Categorization Program (CP) indicated that this therapeutic modality is beneficial in improving cognitive abilities in survivors of moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study provides additional evidence for the use of the CP in postacute TBI cognitive rehabilitation.

Methods: Twenty-one participants in the experimental group received the CP training, and 14 participants in the control group received the conventional treatment used at their rehabilitation center. Following neuropsychological testing, participants began their therapy program.

Results: There was no significant difference in the baseline performance of the 2 TBI groups on any of the measures. CP-dependent measures correlated significantly with several neuropsychological tests. Both groups improved in their neuropsychological test performance and on functional outcomes tests. However, subjects in the experimental group improved on more tests than participants in the control group. Posttest performance of subjects in the TBI control group was significantly lower on the CP Test 1 and CP Test 2 as compared with the experimental group. Furthermore, the performance of participants in the CP group improved across the 3 probe tasks demonstrating generalizability to new tasks; the performance of participants in the control group did not improve.

Conclusions: The CP is an effective therapy method to reduce categorization impairment and improve cognitive performance of survivors of TBI who are enrolled in postacute rehabilitation. This study contributes to the growing body of evidence supporting cognitive rehabilitation efforts after TBI.