The Effect of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation on Memory and Mood Management in Individuals with Stroke

Globally, stroke ranks as the second most common cause of death and places a substantial financial burden on society. Stroke imposes a significant burden on the global health system. Clinical manifestations of stroke can quickly cause mild to severe nerve damage, which is mainly caused by lack of blood flow, but the impact of a stroke goes beyond the initial brain damage. The progression of cognitive decline may be even more important than stroke, as post-stroke cognitive impairment affects stroke survivors. The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of neuropsychological rehabilitation on memory and mood regulation among stroke patients residing in Yasuj, Iran.

A semi-experimental research design was employed in the present study, which included a pretest, posttest, and a 6-month follow-up. The study focused on stroke patients between the ages of 20 and 60 residing in Yasuj, Iran, from 2021 to 2022. Thirty individuals were purposefully selected from the statistical population, and then, using random sampling were divided into two groups, experimental (15 individuals) and control (15 individuals). The experimental group underwent 22 sessions of 90-minute treatments. To collect research data, the following measures were used: Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the protocol for neuropsychological rehabilitation treatment, the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS), the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Harrington's frustration tolerance questionnaire, and the go/no-go test. The statistical analysis of the research data was conducted by utilizing the covariance or variance test with repeated measurements along with the Bonferroni post hoc test and SPSS-21 software.

The results indicated that the neuro-psychotherapeutic rehabilitation approach had a significant effect on memory (F=92.37, p=0.001), as well as on the components of mood management, including anxiety (F=90.42, p=0.001), depression (F=85.6, p=0.001), learned helplessness (F=68.9, p=0.001), and reactivity (F=46.8, p=0.001) in individuals with stroke.

Based on the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that among the therapeutic methods useful for memory rehabilitation and mood management, neuropsychological rehabilitation is one of the most effective methods.