Cognitive Remediation of Working Memory Post Head Trauma

Head Trauma Clinical Trial

— Meta-SCED  

Official title:

Cognitive Remediation of Working Memory After Moderate to Severe Head Trauma. a SCED Study.

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Not yet recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT06077695
• Other study ID #: RC31/22/0502
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: December 30, 2024
• Est. completion date: December 30, 2025

Study information

• Verified date: June 2024
• Source: University Hospital, Toulouse
• Contact: Adeline Julien
• Phone: 05 61 77 97 21
• Email: julien.ade[@]chu-toulouse.fr
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Patients with working memory deficits due to a moderate to severe head injury will undergo a 5 month protocol including cognitive remediation with numerous exercises, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and therapeutic education.

Description:

This study is a multiple baseline Single Case Experimental Design (SCED) across 3 patients and 2 behaviors (working memory performance, application of compensatory strategies).

The remediation program will include 4 intervention phases, and include patients with moderate or severe head trauma and expressing a cognitive complaint of working memory during the neuropsychological screening examination.

These patients will benefit from a neuropsychological assessment at inclusion then cognitive remediation treatment consisting of 4 phases. The duration of the baseline will be randomized. At the end of phases C and D, a new neuropsychological examination will be carried out.

Patients will have to come twice a week, for 12 weeks. All sessions will be individual.

• Phase A: Therapeutic education (Weeks 1 to 4) This first phase will include therapeutic education sessions lasting 90 minutes. The themes covered will concern Head trauma in the chronic phase. Cognitive and behavioral disorders secondary to traumatic brain injury (TBI) will not be addressed. The duration of this phase will be randomized.

• Phase B: tDCS + therapeutic education (Weeks 5 to 8) During this intervention phase, at each visit patients will have 20 minutes of tDCS stimulation and 70 minutes of therapeutic education.

Concerning tDCS stimulation, an electrical current of 2mA will be delivered using the electrodes for 20 min. The content of the therapeutic education sessions will be developed in the same way as for phase A.

• Phase C: tDCS + cognitive remediation (Weeks 9 to 12) During this intervention phase, at each visit, patients will have 20 minutes of tDCS stimulation and 70 minutes of specific cognitive remediation of working memory.

The cognitive remediation program will combine working memory retraining using computerized and paper-and-pencil supports as well as more ecological exercises that respond precisely to the difficulties encountered by the patient in daily life.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Enrollment: 9
• Est. completion date: December 30, 2025
• Est. primary completion date: December 30, 2025
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 60 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Moderate or severe head trauma, defined by an initial Glasgow score = 12/15, duration of post-traumatic amnesia superior to 24 hours and/or the presence of abnormalities on brain imaging,

• Moderate or severe head trauma occurring within a period greater than or equal to 3 months,

• Working memory complaints assessed by the Working Memory Questionnaire,

• Patients with a working memory disorder in at least one of the following tests: Digit Memory subtest WAIS-IV (standard deviation = -2) , PASAT (percentile = 10), Brown-Peterson (standard deviation = -2).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Presence of aphasia, apraxia or severe neglect demonstrated by standardized neuropsychological tests during the inclusion visit: language - oral naming of BECS-GRECO images, ideational praxis and ideomotor , neglect - bell test,

• Insufficient visual or auditory abilities and oral and written expression to carry out neuropsychological tests,

• Severe depression assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)

• Chronic alcoholic poisoning, drug addiction,

• Progressive general illness,

• Progressive psychiatric or neurological condition leading to cognitive impairment,

• Hospitalization for a neurological pathology since the acute phase of the qualifying event,

• Patient requiring surgery during study participation.

• Pregnant or breastfeeding women

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Craniocerebral Trauma
• Head Trauma
• Wounds and Injuries

Intervention

Other:
• therapeutic education
The themes covered concern head trauma in the chronic phase.
• tDCS
The constant electric current will be delivered at an intensity of 2 mA for 20 minutes.The anode will be placed opposite the dorsolateral prefrontal area on the right. The cathode (or reference electrode) will be positioned opposite the supraorbital area on the left. This methodology is based on the general directions and results from scientific studies which aimed to improve the efficiency of neural networks engaged in attentional processes and working memory.
• cognitive remediation
Personalized sessions combining 2 approaches:•Retraining deficit components of working memory.exercise the strengthening of metacognition and the learning of "reorganization-facilitation" strategies. At the end of each exercise, the participant will be asked to analyze their performance and will benefit from feedback from the rehabilitator as well as a discussion on the use of the strategies. Finally, all of the proposed tasks will be made up of several levels of complexity; moving to a more complex stage will require more than 90% success in the exercise.•More ecological exercises will also be carried out in order to get as close as possible to the difficulties encountered by the patient on a daily basis. The examiner will guide the rehabilitation and propose tasks imitating his daily life.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University Hospital, Toulouse

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Working memory performance	difference in performance on a working memory task (2-back) between phase A (therapeutic education) and interventional phase C (t-DCS + cognitive remediation) : a 2-back task is a repeated measure of working memory performance.; On each trial, a stimulus will appear in the center of the screen for 500 msec. It will be followed by an inter-stimulus phase of 1500 msec. The stimulus will be a capital letter (consonants only). In this 2-back task, the subject will be asked to press the answer key as quickly as possible when the letter presented is identical to the penultimate. This task requires strong working memory and attentional resources. Error-free delay (ms), reaction times (ms) and standard deviation of reaction times (ms) will be counted.	8 weeks after baseline
Secondary	Goal attainment	The difference in Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) scores between phase A (therapeutic education) and interventional phase C (t-DCS + cognitive remediation).; Each goal is personalized with the patient.; The scale has 5 types of score each representing a goal attainment status (expectation) : 2 being the further away form expectation; 1 a little less than aimed 0 meaning that the goal set is attained; 1 a little more than what was aimed; 2 exceeds a lot expectations	8 weeks after baseline