Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy for Traumatic Brain Injury Evaluating the Evidence

REPORT BRIEF OCTOBER 2011
For more information visit www.iom.edu/CRTforTBI
Cognitive Rehabilitation
Therapy for Traumatic
Brain Injury
Evaluating the Evidence
Traumatic brain injury (TBI)—affecting an estimated 10 million people
worldwide—results from a bump or blow to the head, or from external forces
that cause the brain to move within the head, such as whiplash or exposure to
blasts. TBI is a serious and growing problem, particularly among soldiers and
veterans because of repeated exposure to violent environments. It can cause
cognitive, physical, or psychosocial problems. One form of treatment for TBI
is cognitive rehabilitation therapy (CRT), a patient-specific, goal-oriented
approach to help patients increase their ability to process and interpret information. CRT involves a variety of treatments provided by health professionals in a wide range of fields and often involves the participation of family or
caregivers.
Given that TBI is considered the “signature wound” of the conflicts in
Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Defense (DoD) asked the Institute
of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a study to determine the effectiveness of CRT
for treatment of TBI. Specifically, the DoD asked the IOM to consider whether
existing research on CRT provides a conclusive evidence base to support
using specific CRT interventions and to guide the use of CRT for members of
the military and veterans.
The IOM appointed a committee of experts to answer the following questions:
• Are CRT interventions proven to reduce an individual’s cognitive deficits
across:
• the three levels of injury (mild, moderate, and severe);
• the three phases of recovery (acute, sub-acute, and chronic);
TBI is a serious and growing problem, particularly among soldiers
and veterans because of repeated
exposure to violent environments.
It can cause cognitive, physical, or
psychosocial problems.
• the cognitive functions (attention, language and communication, memory,
and problem-solving abilities known
as executive function) or within a comprehensive rehabilitation program that
may target more than one cognitive
function?
cal and occupational therapy, speech-language
pathology, psychology, and neurology. Each profession determines the training requirements for
its own practitioners, and U.S. states regulate professional licensing standards. Because no national
brain injury rehabilitation license and credential
exist, the standards vary among rehabilitation
professionals.
• Are any CRT interventions associated with
risk for adverse events or harm?
• Are CRT interventions safe and effective
when administered through “telehealth”
technologies?
Shortcomings in the Research
In its report, the committee concludes that current
evidence provides limited support for the efficacy
of CRT interventions. The evidence varies in both
the quality and volume of studies and therefore is
not yet sufficient to develop definitive guidelines
for health professionals on how to apply CRT in
practice. The variation among patient characteristics, severity of injuries, and CRT interventions
has made it difficult for researchers to know with
certainty how effective a specific CRT intervention is in the long-term recovery of a specific individual. A lack of standardized terms for the different forms of CRT also presents a challenge for
researchers.
Despite the methodological shortcomings of
the evidence, the committee supports the ongoing
use of CRT for people suffering from a TBI while
improvements are made in the standardization,
design, and conduct of studies.
The committee completed a review of the literature and evaluated studies that met selection
criteria in each of the cognitive functions or comprehensive rehabilitation programs.
Understanding Cognitive
Rehabilitation Therapy
The goal of CRT is to help an individual with a
brain injury enhance his or her ability to move
through daily life by recovering or compensating
for damaged cognitive functions. A restorative
approach helps the patient reestablish cognitive
function, while compensatory approaches help
the individual to adapt to an ongoing impairment.
CRT interventions are nearly as unique and
varied as the individuals they are used to treat.
A comprehensive rehabilitation program may be
used for individuals with multiple impairments,
for example memory loss combined with difficulties in problem solving, while approaches focused
on a single cognitive function attempt to work on
each impairment in isolation. In addition to the
variation in treatment, an individual’s response
to any one treatment may vary as well, depending
on the injury, the individual’s prior state of health,
and the individual’s social context. Treatment
strategies evolve, as different treatments become
necessary at different points in time.
CRT is practiced by a wide range of professionals in rehabilitation medicine, nursing, physi-
Implementing a Research Agenda
The committee recommends an investment in
research to further define, standardize, and assess
the outcomes of CRT interventions. Developing studies that have larger sample sizes and that
examine a more comprehensive set of variables
regarding the injuries, patient characteristics,
and outcomes will help advance knowledge about
CRT. In addition, because CRT encompasses a
wide range of therapies, research is needed to
evaluate the effectiveness of each intervention
for each cognitive function. To achieve standard-
2
Despite the methodological shortcomings of the evidence, the committee supports the ongoing use
of CRT for people suffering from a
TBI while improvements are made
in the standardization, design, and
conduct of studies.
ization, the DoD should convene a conference to
reach consensus among a multiagency and multidisciplinary team on the variables included in
future studies and the strategy to advance the
common definition of CRT interventions.
Once the research community develops standardized variables and definitions, the committee
recommends that the DoD collect clinical data in the
most rigorous way possible, which will help answer
questions about which patients benefit the most
from which CRT interventions. The DoD also should
integrate the standardized definitions into ongoing
research studies and should develop a comprehen-
sive registry of CRT interventions—a database to collect information about these variables.
As part of an effort to advance current
research, the DoD in collaboration with other
research and funding agencies, should support all
phases of research on CRT, including pilot studies, early efficacy studies, large-scale clinical trials, and comparative effectiveness studies. In the
future, researchers should capture information
about potential adverse events as well as evaluate CRT interventions applied through telehealth
technology, for example treating patients via voice
or video calls over the Internet.
Incidence of TBI in the Military
35000
30000
Incidence
25000
20000
15000
Not Classifiable
Penetrating
10000
Severe
5000
0
Moderate
Mild
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Year
SOURCE: Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, 2011
3
Committee on Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy for
Traumatic Brain Injury
Ira Shoulson (Chair)
Professor of Neurology,
Pharmacology and Human
Science, and Director, Program
for Regulatory Science and
Medicine, Georgetown
University, Washington, DC
Rebecca A. Betensky
Professor of Biostatistics,
Harvard School of Public
Health, Harvard University,
Boston, MA
Peter Como
Lead Reviewer/Neuropsychologist, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD
Ray Dorsey
Associate Professor of
Neurology, The Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, MD
Charles Drebing
Acting Mental Health Service
Line Manager, Bedford VA
Medical Center, Bedford, MA
Alan I. Faden
David S. Brown Professor,
Departments of Anesthesiology, Anatomy and Neurobiology,
Neurosurgery, and Neurology,
Director, STAR Organized
Research Center, University of
Maryland School of Medicine
Robert T. Fraser
Professor of Rehabilitation
Medicine, University of Washington/Harborview Medical
Center, Seattle, WA
Richard Keefe
Professor of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences, Duke
University Medical Center,
Durham, NC
Mary R. T. Kennedy
Associate Professor, Department of Speech-LanguageHearing Sciences, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis
Harvey Levin
Professor and Director of
Research, Department of
Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine; Director of the Center of
Excellence for Traumatic Brain
Injury, Michael E. De Bakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center,
Houston, TX
Cynthia D. Mulrow
Professor of Medicine,
University of Texas Health
Science Center at San Antonio,
TX
Conclusion
Each year, 1.7 million people in the United States
sustain a TBI, and the number of military service
members diagnosed with a TBI nearly tripled from
2000 to 2010. The incidence of TBI is rapidly rising, and while the survival rate is rising concomitantly—due to improved protective equipment and
more effective life-saving measures—survivors of
TBI may experience long-lasting physical and cognitive impairments. These trends point to a growing
need to effectively treat the lasting consequences
of traumatic brain injury. CRT interventions are
promising approaches, but further development
and assessment of this therapy is required. f
Hilaire Thompson
Assistant Professor, School of
Nursing, University of
Washington, Seattle
John Whyte
Director, Moss Rehabilitation
Research Institute, Elkins Park,
PA
Tamar Heller
Professor and Department
Head, Department of Disability
and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago
Consultants
Jennifer Vasterling
Chief of Psychology, VA Boston
Healthcare System; Professor
of Psychiatry, Boston University
School of Medicine, MA
Barbara Vickrey
Professor and Vice Chair,
Department of Neurology,
University of California, Los
Angeles
Study Staff
Rebecca Koehler
Study Director
Andrea Cohen
Financial Associate
Erin E. Wilhelm
Associate Program Officer
Frederick (Rick) Erdtmann
Director, Board on the Health
of Select Populations
Alicia Jaramillo-Underwood
Program Assistant
Jon Q. Sanders
Program Associate
Study Sponsor
U.S. Department of Defense
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
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FAX 202.334.1412
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