Executive functioning in alcoholics following an mHealth cognitive stimulation program: randomized controlled trial.
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Date
2014-04-18
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Abstract
BACKGROUND The consequences of alcohol dependence are severe and may range from physical disease to neuropsychological deficits in several cognitive domains Alcohol abuse has also been related to brain dysfunction specifically in the prefrontal cortex Conventional neuropsychological interventions paper and pencil cognitive stimulation training have a positive effect but are time consuming costly and not motivating for patients OBJECTIVE Our goal was to test the cognitive effects of a novel approach to neuropsychological intervention using mobile technology and serious games on patients with alcohol dependence METHODS The trial design consisted of a two arm study assessing the cognitive outcomes of neuropsychological intervention with mobile serious games mHealth versus control treatment as usual with no neuropsychological intervention in patients undergoing treatment for alcohol dependence syndrome Sixty eight patients were recruited from an alcohol rehab clinic and randomly assigned to the mHealth n 33 or control condition n 35 The intervention on the experimental group consisted of a therapist assisted cognitive stimulation therapy for 4 weeks on a 2 3 days week basis RESULTS Fourteen patients dropped out of the study The results of the neuropsychological assessments with the remaining 54 patients showed an overall increase PUnder 05 of general cognitive abilities mental flexibility psychomotor processing speed and attentional ability in both experimental n 26 and control groups n 28 However there was a more pronounced improvement P 01 specifically in frontal lobe functions from baseline mean 13 89 SE 0 58 to follow up mean 15 50 SE 0 46 in the experimental group but not in the control group CONCLUSIONS The overall increase in general cognitive function for both experimental and control groups supports the beneficial role of existing alcohol treatment protocols aimed at minimizing withdrawal symptoms but the differential improvements observed in frontal lobe functioning supports the use of mobile serious games for neuropsychological stimulation to overcome executive dysfunction in patients with alcohol dependence This trial was negative on two neuropsychological cognitive tests and positive on one TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials gov NCT01942954 http www clinicaltrials gov ct2 show NCT01942954
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Keywords
Quality of care, Diversity of treatment options, Drug users, Treatment adherence, Internet, Text, Image, Audio, Video, Alcohol use