The Impact of Computer-Based Cognitive Rehabilitation Program on Alzheimer's Patients with Mild Cognitive Deficits

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of computer-based cognitive rehabilitation on cognitive deficits in elderly patients with Alzheimer's disease.
This controlled study followed a pretest/post-test paradigm. Sixteen elderly nursing-home residents with Alzheimer's disease in Kerman were included based on the defined criteria.
Subjects were assigned to two groups i.e. experimental and control. Participants were
submitted to brief mental state questionnaire, physical examination, Wechsler Memory
Test, Tower of London, Go-No Go and Bender Gestalt Tests. The cognitive rehabilitation
program using neuro-training for 24 sessions over 8 weeks, 2-3 times a week and 1-hour
per session was performed. Same set of results were obtained in an 8-week follow-up.
Data were analyzed using repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance.
According to our results, the experimental group who received computer-based cognitive rehabilitation intervention was found to have significantly less impairment as compared to the control group in terms of scores in mental state examination (η2 = -0.94), Tower of London task (η2 = -0.68), Go- No Go task (η2 = -0.93), memory performance in Wechsler memory test (η2 = -0.89) and Bender-Gestalt test (η2 = -0.88). Results also showed that the intervention effects on all variables remained consistent upon follow-up.
Our findings confirmed the influence of computer-based cognitive rehabilitation intervention to improve cognitive function in elderly patients with mild Alzheimer's disease. Such interventions are therefore recommended in the applied neuro-cognitive rehabilitation setting.