Treating Patients with Frontal Neurocognitive Deficits After SAH and Stroke.

Five frontal systems circuits connect with the basal ganglia and other structures to control and regulate thinking and behavior. Subarachnoid hemorrhage and stroke following anterior circulation aneurysms typically disrupt these circuits, sometimes markedly affecting a patient's function. This article reviews the primary pathways and associated brain functions.

Discriminating high fall risk on an inpatient rehabilitation unit.

The objective of this study was to identify on admission the most discriminating fall predictors for patients to an inpatient rehabilitation unit. Medical information from 34 patients who fell over a consecutive 7-month period and 102 controls (1:3 ratio) matched for diagnosis, age, and gender was analyzed to identify a set of best predictors. Admission mobility and problem solving FIM scores accounted for 17% of variance in whether a fall occurred during the admission.

Client-centered occupational therapy using constraint-induced therapy.

Constraint-induced therapy (CIT) is a rehabilitation intervention designed to promote increased use of a weak or paralyzed arm, most commonly in patients who sustained a stroke. CIT involves constraining the unaffected arm in a sling or mitt, forcing the use of the weaker or paralyzed arm in daily activities. The aim of this study was to determine whether immobilizing the uninvolved arm of persons who experienced a stroke while participating in meaningful activities of daily living would increase their satisfaction and performance in life roles.

Visual deficit interventions in adult stroke and brain injury: a systematic review.

Visual deficits after cerebral injury are common. The variability in the types of injury sustained as well as their impact on function in the environment have produced multiple approaches at corrective intervention. To assess the effectiveness of these vision interventions, an extensive literature search was completed.

Effects of demographic and health variables on Rasch scaled cognitive scores.

Objectives: To determine whether demographic and health variables interact to predict cognitive scores in Asset and Health Dynamics of the Oldest-Old (AHEAD), a representative survey of older Americans, as a test of the developmental discontinuity hypothesis.

Methods: Rasch modeling procedures were used to rescale cognitive measures into interval scores, equating scales across measures, making it possible to compare predictor effects directly. Rasch scaling also reduces the likelihood of obtaining spurious interactions.

Memory Functioning Questionnaire: concurrent validity with memory performance and self-reported memory failures.

Concurrent validity of factor scores from the Memory Functioning Questionnaire (MFQ; Gilewski, Zelinski, & Schaie, in press) with memory performance was investigated in 2 studies. Study 1 involved 198 adults aged 55-85; Study 2, 89 adults aged 50-87. After effects of depression, education, and health were partialed out, MFQ scores predicted performance on laboratory memory tests in Study 1 and performance on clinical memory tests and diaries of memory failures over 2 weeks in Study 2.