Rehabilitation with intensive attention training early after acquired brain injury promotes better long-term status on health-related quality of life, daily activities, work ability and return to work.

Objective: To describe long-term effects on activity, participation, and quality of life (i) at different post-injury starting time points of attention training and (ii) of two different types of rehabilitation with attention training in patients after stroke or traumatic brain injury; and to describe their functioning level.

Design: 2 years after rehabilitation intervention, comparisons were made in one cohort receiving attention training subacute (< 4 months) or post-acute (4-12 months) and in one cohort with two different training methods, a process-based and an activity-based method respectively.

Patients: 100 patients were recruited from our earlier RCT study.

Comparison of attention process training and activity-based attention training after acquired brain injury: A randomized controlled study.

Objectives: To compare the effects of 2 interventions for attention deficits in people with acquired brain injury, Attention Process Training (APT) and Activity--based Attention Training (ABAT), on activity and participation.

Design: Randomized controlled study.

Patients: The study included 51 patients in out-patient rehabilitation 4-12 months after stroke or traumatic brain injury.

Do quality of life, anxiety, depression and acceptance improve after interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation? A multicentre matched control study of acceptance and commitment therapy-based versus cognitive-behavioural therapy-based programmes.

Objective: Interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation (IPR) usually employs a cognitive-behavioural therapeutic (CBT) approach. However, there is growing support for chronic pain treatments based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Most studies of ACT and CBT for chronic pain have evaluated their effects after psychological interventions, not after IPR.

Preliminary ICF core set for patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome in rehabilitation medicine.

Objective: To create and evaluate a preliminary ICF Core Set for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome using a team-based approach.

Design: Observational study.

Subjects/patients: A total of 100 consecutive patients (mean age 45 years (standard deviation (SD) 9 years)) were assessed by a rehabilitation team and included in the study.

Beneficial effects of early attention process training after acquired brain injury: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Evaluation of outcome after intensive cognitive rehabilitation early after brain injury is complicated due to the ongoing biological recovery process.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of Attention Process Training early after acquired brain injury through time-series measurement with statistical process control.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Is a structured work task application for the assessment of work performance in a constructed environment, useful for patients with attention deficits?

Background: The purpose of our study was to develop a Structured Work Task application for the Assessment of Work Performance for patients with attention deficits.

Material And Methods: We developed a computer-based registration task titled the Attention-demanding Registration Task. It had a structured administrative procedure with additional scoring regarding time and accuracy, also linked to the original scoring of the Assessment of Work Performance.

Return to work after interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation: One- and two-year follow-up based on the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain rehabilitation.

Objectives: To investigate: (i) changes in sick-leave benefits from 1 year prior to multimodal rehabilitation to 1 and 2 years after rehabilitation; (ii) sex differences in sick leave; and (iii) the impact of policy changes on sick leave.

Methods: All patients undergoing multimodal rehabilitation registered in a national pain database for 2007-11 (n = 7,297) were linked to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency database. Sick leave was analysed in 3-month periods: T0: 1 year before rehabilitation; T1: before start; T2: 1 year after; and T3: 2 years after rehabilitation.

Daily management of attention dysfunction two-four years after brain injury and early cognitive rehabilitation with attention process training: a qualitative study.

The evaluation of intensive cognitive training is usually based on neuropsychological tests and questionnaires. A study of the subjective experience of cognitive training would provide another type of valuable information concerning the effects of rehabilitation. We used grounded theory methods to explore the experience and management of attention dysfunction in daily life two-four years after brain injury.

Statistical process control: A feasibility study of the application of time-series measurement in early neurorehabilitation after acquired brain injury.

Background: Progress in early cognitive recovery after acquired brain injury is uneven and unpredictable, and thus the evaluation of rehabilitation is complex. The use of time-series measurements is susceptible to statistical change due to process variation.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of using a time-series method, statistical process control, in early cognitive rehabilitation.

The effect of sampling bias on generalizability in intervention trials after brain injury.

Objective And Design: The first objective of this descriptive study was to explore the effect of strict inclusion and exclusion criteria on patient recruitment in cognitive rehabilitation; the second was to analyse the representativeness of study patients for all eligible stroke and traumatic brain injury patients referred to the department from September 2011 to November 2014.

Methods: The setting was multi-professional in- and outpatient brain injury rehabilitation in a university hospital. Participants were enrolled consecutively in acute (< 4 months) or sub-acute (4-12 months) phases of rehabilitation after injury.

Work ability in patients with polymyositis and dermatomyositis: An explorative and descriptive study.

Background: Polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM) are rare, chronic inflammatory diseases leading to muscle weakness and low muscle endurance. The muscle weakness may lead to restrictions in daily activities and low health-related quality of life.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the work situation, work ability, work-related risk factors, and influence of the physical and psycho-social work environment in patients with PM and DM.

The protocol and design of a randomised controlled study on training of attention within the first year after acquired brain injury.

Background: To describe the design of the study aiming to examine intensive targeted cognitive rehabilitation of attention in the acute (<4 months) and subacute rehabilitation phases (4-12 months) after acquired brain injury and to evaluate the effects on function, activity and participation (return to work).

Methods/design: Within a prospective, randomised, controlled study 120 consecutive patients with stroke or traumatic brain injury were randomised to 20 hours of intensive attention training by Attention Process Training or by standard, activity based training. Progress was evaluated by Statistical Process Control and by pre and post measurement of functional and activity levels.

Hand exercise intervention in patients with polymyositis and dermatomyositis: a pilot study.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to develop a 12-week hand exercise intervention for patients with polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM) and evaluate adherence, patients' opinions of the programme design and overall feasibility, and the effect on hand function and activity limitation after the intervention.

Method: A pilot hand exercise intervention was conducted on a convenience sample of 15 patients with reduced handgrip strength and established, inactive PM and DM. Acceptable adherence was set at 75%.

Using a profile of a modified Brief ICF Core Set for chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain with qualifiers for baseline assessment in interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation.

Aim: To describe the use of a "workable" visual profile of function and disability, based on a modified Brief International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Set for chronic widespread pain, for initial assessments in a clinical setting of interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation teams.

Method: The Brief ICF Core Set was slightly adapted to meet the needs of an interdisciplinary rehabilitation medicine team working in a university outpatient clinic and admitting patients referred from primary care. The Core Set categories were made measurable by means of eg, assessment instruments and clinical investigations.

Between unemployment and employment: experience of unemployed long-term pain sufferers.

Objective: This study explored and analysed how patients experienced possibilities for, and barriers to, work return after participation in a multi-professional pain-rehabilitation program followed by a coached work-training program (CWT).

Participants: Eleven informants (8 women/3 men) with long-term musculoskeletal pain who had participated in the CWT program for 4-21 months (mean=11) comprised the study.

Methods: A qualitative emergent design was used.

Alcohol habits in patients with long-term musculoskeletal pain: comparison with a matched control group from the general population.

This prospective study aimed to describe alcohol habits in patients with chronic pain compared with those in a matched control group from the general Swedish population. In total, 100 consecutive patients enrolled were matched against 100 individuals in a control group on the basis of age and sex. Alcohol habits were measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test in both groups.

The ICF and postsurgery occupational therapy after traumatic hand injury.

Recent studies have examined the effectiveness of hand rehabilitation programmes and have linked the outcomes to the concept of ICF but not to specific ICF category codes. The objective of this study was to gain experience using ICF concepts to describe occupational therapy interventions during postsurgery hand rehabilitation, and to describe improvement in functioning using ICF categories. In addition, investigated was the agreement between the ICF categories for occupational therapy interventions and the outcome measures used.

Whiplash patients' experience of a multimodal rehabilitation programme and its usefulness one year later.

Objective: The study aimed to explore and analyse how, 1 year after completing a rehabilitation programme, persons with long-term pain due to whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) experienced their participation, and what knowledge and strategies they had gained from it for handling their daily occupations.

Methods: The study had an emergent design. Thematised research interviews were conducted with nine informants.

Indicators of need for occupational therapy in patients with chronic pain: occupational therapists' focus groups.

This study explores occupational therapists' (OT) perceptions of indicators for occupational therapy interventions among patients with chronic pain. An exploratory design was applied to six focus groups of OTs (n = 25) for data collection. Analysis was performed using content analysis through identification of meaning units, codes, categories and themes.

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health environmental factors as facilitators or barriers used in describing personal and social networks: a pilot study of adults with cerebral palsy.

Using the environmental factors of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), the aim of the study was to describe the social networks involved in the everyday lives of adults with cerebral palsy (CP). A further aim was to use the ICF generic scale to describe how far these adults experienced the contacts within these networks as facilitators or barriers. Sixteen adults with CP, including nine women, with a mean age of 32 years were interviewed.

Agreement of a work-capacity assessment with the World Health Organisation International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health pain sets and back-to-work predictors.

The degree of agreement between a clinical multi-professional work-capacity assessment and the Comprehensive World Health Organisation International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Sets for chronic pain and risk factors for no return to work was investigated. A review of data records and interviews with team members included measures of body function/structure, activities/participation and environmental factors. Predictors for return to work were reviewed.

Exploring experiences of "participation" among individuals living with chronic pain.

The aim of this paper is to advance our understanding of participation and its relation to occupation, by analysing the daily occupational experiences of six men and women living with chronic pain. Open-ended interviews are used in conjunction with a constant comparative method of analysis. The findings are thematically presented as: "taking initiative and making choices", doing something physical", "doing something social", and "doing something for others".

Multidimensional aspects of work capability.

OBJECTIVE: Comparisons of the results of a multidimensional criterion-referenced vocational assessment (CMVA) were performed between a group of patients with chronic pain (group P; n = 86) and individuals working (group W; n = 106). The participants had experience of five job categories. METHODS: The participants' capability to work was assessed from the aspects of personal factors, background data, present work experience, personal and work environmental factors probably influencing work capacity and capacity to perform occupations.