Rebuilding the self through valued action and group connections after acquired brain injury: Participant perspectives of the VaLiANT group intervention.

Effective interventions that facilitate adjustment following acquired brain injury (ABI) are needed to improve long-term outcomes and meaningful reengagement in life. VaLiANT is an 8-week group intervention that combines cognitive rehabilitation with Acceptance and Commitment therapy to improve valued living, wellbeing, and adjustment. This study explored participant experiences of VaLiANT to optimize its ongoing development.

Does Integrating Cognitive and Psychological Interventions Enhance Wellbeing After Acquired Brain Injury? Study Protocol for a Phase II Randomized Controlled Trial of the VaLiANT (Valued Living After Neurological Trauma) Group Program.

Background And Objectives: Cognitive and emotional changes affect the majority of individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) and are associated with poorer outcomes. The evidence for "siloed" rehabilitation approaches targeting cognition and mood separately remains mixed. Valued living (i.

A single-case experimental evaluation of a new group-based intervention to enhance adjustment to life with acquired brain injury: VaLiANT (valued living after neurological trauma).

Adjustment to life with acquired brain injury (ABI) requires self-identity and behaviour to be updated, incorporating injury-related changes. Identifying and enabling new values-consistent behaviours could facilitate this process. We evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of VaLiANT, a new group intervention that aims to enhance "valued living" following ABI.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with cerebral small vessel disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Cerebral small vessel disease, a common cause of vascular dementia, is often considered clinically silent before dementia or stroke become apparent. However, some individuals have subtle symptoms associated with acute MRI lesions. We aimed to determine whether neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms vary according to small vessel disease burden.

A scoping review of the nature and outcomes of extended rehabilitation programmes after very severe brain injury.

Primary Objective: Many adults with very severe acquired brain injury (ABI) do not receive adequate rehabilitation, limiting their recovery and leading to admission to inappropriate living environments. The aim of this scoping review was to map the existing literature relating to the nature and outcomes of rehabilitation programmes for adults experiencing prolonged recovery after very severe ABI.

Design: A comprehensive scoping of the literature was undertaken, including systematic searching of databases, grey literature, and hand searching.

Effectiveness of Communication-specific Coping Intervention for adults with traumatic brain injury: preliminary results.

People with traumatic brain injury (TBI) describe everyday interactions as a long-term challenge frequently associated with ongoing stress. Communication-specific Coping Intervention (CommCope-I) is a new treatment developed to target coping in the context of communication breakdown. The intervention incorporates principles of cognitive behavioural therapy, self-coaching and context-sensitive social communication therapy.

"I've never been a yes person": Decision-making participation and self-conceptualization after severe traumatic brain injury.

Purpose: Although adults who sustain a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) require support to make decisions in their lives, little is known about their experience of this process. The aim of this study was to explore how participation in decision making contributes to self-conceptualization in adults with severe TBI.

Method: We used constructivist grounded theory methods.

'The biggest thing is trying to live for two people': Spousal experiences of supporting decision-making participation for partners with TBI.

Primary Objective: To understand how the spouses of individuals with severe TBI experience the process of supporting their partners with decision-making.

Design: This study adopted a constructivist grounded theory approach, with data consisting of in-depth interviews conducted with spouses over a 12-month period. Data were analysed through an iterative process of open and focused coding, identification of emergent categories and exploration of relationships between categories.

"I won't be around forever": Understanding the decision-making experiences of adults with severe TBI and their parents.

There is growing recognition of the right of all individuals, including those with cognitive impairment, to make decisions about their own lives. However, little is known about how the process of decision making is experienced after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study used constructivist grounded theory to explore processes used by adults with severe TBI and their parents in making decisions about life after injury.

Whose decision is it anyway? How clinicians support decision-making participation after acquired brain injury.

Purpose: To raise professional awareness of factors that may influence the support offered by clinicians to people with acquired brain injury (ABI), and to consider the potential implications of these factors in terms of post-injury rehabilitation and living.

Method: A review of the literature was conducted to identify factors that determine how clinicians provide support and influence opportunities for individuals with ABI to participate in decision making across the rehabilitation continuum. Clinical case studies are used to highlight two specific issues: (1) hidden assumptions on the part of the practitioner, and (2) perceptions of risk operating in clinical practice.

Spontaneous gestures influence strategy choices in problem solving.

Do gestures merely reflect problem-solving processes, or do they play a functional role in problem solving? We hypothesized that gestures highlight and structure perceptual-motor information, and thereby make such information more likely to be used in problem solving. Participants in two experiments solved problems requiring the prediction of gear movement, either with gesture allowed or with gesture prohibited. Such problems can be correctly solved using either a perceptual-motor strategy (simulation of gear movements) or an abstract strategy (the parity strategy).

Long-term ability to interpret facial expression after traumatic brain injury and its relation to social integration.

There is considerable evidence that individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) experience problems interpreting the emotional state of others. However, the functional implications of these changes have not been fully investigated. A study of 13 individuals with severe TBI and an equal number of matched controls found that TBI participants had significantly more difficulty interpreting facial expression and matching emotions to social situations.