Rehabilitation of Executive Functions in Users of Addictive Substances. Study Protocol

BACKGROUND:

Substance use increases the risk of damage to executive and cognitive functions. Manifested by a range of clinical symptoms, such impairments may affect people’s coping with everyday activities and their abilities to establish and maintain good social links. Substance users are an at-risk population in this respect. AIMS: Two cognitive rehabilitation interventions will be experimentally implemented into clinical practice and their effectiveness compared. The levels of impairment of the patients’ executive and cognitive functioning will be investigated.

METHODS:

The first rehabilitation modality under study is the Neurop3 computer program. The second, a pen-and-paper based cognitive rehabilitation programme, will be devised by the authors. Initially, each patient will be screened using a test battery. If a deficit is identified, the patient will be offered the opportunity to participate in a rehabilitation programme. The components of the screening battery and the subsequent rehabilitation programmes will be chosen in such a way as to ensure that their administration falls within the competencies of an addiction specialist. The patients will be randomised into three groups according to the cognitive rehabilitation approach applied: 30 patients will be exposed to computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation, 30 patients will undergo pen-and paper rehabilitation, and 30 patients will constitute a control group. The study sample will comprise patients from the outpatient addiction treatment clinic at the Department of Addictology of the General University Hospital. The duration of all three programmes will be eight weeks.

DISCUSSION:

The research study explores the potential of rehabilitation programmes and explains the importance of cognitive rehabilitation for addiction patients. The results suggest that two cognitive rehabilitation programmes, in particular, may be promising in clinical practice. The research study is designed in such a way as to make it possible for an addiction specialist to administer it.