Does Cognitive Training Help People with Memory Disorders?

The answer is yes in a study of patients with mild cognitive impairment but no in another study of patients with mild-to-moderate dementia.

Effective interventions are needed for patients with memory impairment. Medications are ineffective for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and only slow the deterioration in Alzheimer disease (AD). Two recent single-blind, controlled studies examined the efficacy of cognitive training.

Belleville and colleagues randomized 145 patients with MCI to cognitive training, a psychosocial intervention, or no contact (control). Cognitive training was a specific intervention based on learning new strategies that promote capacities for elaborative encoding and attentional control. The psychosocial intervention was a cognitive-behavioral approach to improve psychological well-being. Both interventions involved eight weekly 2-hour sessions plus a booster af…

Reviewing Author

Jonathan Silver, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNorth American Brain Injury Association (Board Member); National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (Chair of Data Monitoring Safety Board for study of donepezil on cognition after traumatic brain injury)

Jonathan Silver, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

Does Cognitive Training Help People with Memory Disorders?

Topics

Reviewing Author