Abstract

MARTINEZ-MARTINEZ, Adriana Marcela; AGUILAR-MEJIA, Oscar Mauricio; MARTINEZ VILLAR, Susana  and  MARINO GARCIA, Daniela. europsychological Rehabilitation Treatments of Executive Functions in Patients with Brain Damage: Characterization and Effectiveness A Review. Univ. Psychol. [online]. 2014, vol.13, n.3, pp.1147-1160. ISSN 1657-9267.  https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.UPSY13-3.cepr.

This paper analyses the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs for executive functions in adults with brain damage. We consider an effective treatment when the program shows results with a statistically significant difference in the neuropsychological assessment after intervention (p < 0.05). Moreover, others criteria were considered such as improvement on daily life scales, the transfer of strategies on daily life conditions and the persistence of these for at least six months. The articles were searched through PubMed and must include keys words as: executive functions, brain damage, neuo-psychological assessment and rehabilitation. Then, they were organised according to which were the aim of the treatment: problem-solving and working memory, self-regulation, motivation and initiative and metacognitive skills. Additionally, there is a section where integrative programs were analysed. We concluded that there are many training programs for executive functions with positive results on patients' daily activities when the intervention is focused in metacognitive skills. However, there are still not enough studies that show an accurate effectiveness due to the conceptual complexity of the executive functions, the variability of patients' symptoms and the limited transfer of the knowledge trained to everyday life.

Keywords : executive functions; neuropsychological rehabilitation; effectiveness.

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