Effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation in improving the cognitive functioning of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder: a systematic review

Cognitive rehabilitation is considered as an effective intervention in promoting the cognitive functions of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. This study aimed to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on improving the cognitive functions of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.

For this purpose, all articles published in the period 2000 to 2020 were reviewed, to find related English studies, Google Scholar Databases, Science Direct, Scopus, Academia, Cochrane Database, Research Gate, and biomedical databases include PubMed, Medline, Psych Info, and rehabilitation databases including PEDRO , OTseeker, Rehab data and to find related studies in Persian, Google Scholar (Persian), SID, Magiran, IranDoc, MedLib, NoorMags, IranMedex databases, to Search with English and Persian keywords.

930 articles published in English and Persian were retrieved, and finally 12 related articles were reviewed. In this study, most studies focused on a limited range of cognitive functions.

The results indicate the improvement of cognitive functions (memory, executive function and attention) in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder after cognitive rehabilitation. According to the results of studies, it can be stated that cognitive rehabilitation as an intervention can be effective along with other therapeutic interventions in promoting of cognitive functions in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.