Treatment of social cognition impairments in patients with traumatic brain injury: a critical review

ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of this study is to review published research on treatment of social cognition impairments in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines, a PubMed literature search was conducted, followed by a manual search in recently published papers. Main criteria for selection were that patients had sustained a TBI, and that social cognition was the main target of treatment. A total of 16 papers and three reviews were selected and included in the present review. Results: Five studies (including three randomized controlled trials (RCT)) addressed facial affect recognition, one study specifically addressed emotional prosody, two RCTs used a combination of treatment strategies addressing social perception deficits. Six studies, including two RCTs, addressed social communication skills or theory of mind. Finally, two RCTs reported the effectiveness of a more global approach, addressing multiple domains of social cognition, such as emotion perception, social skills training, and theory of mind. Discussion/conclusion: Although there has been much less research on treatment of social cognition in patients with TBI as compared with psychiatric conditions, the findings reported in the present review are encouraging. Further multicenter large-scale RCTs are needed, with special emphasis on the generalization of treatment effects to social skills in everyday life.

[1]  É. Bayen,et al.  Objective and Subjective Burden of Informal Caregivers 4 Years After a Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: Results From the PariS-TBI Study , 2014, The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation.

[2]  Barbra Zupan,et al.  A Randomized Controlled Trial of Emotion Recognition Training After Traumatic Brain Injury , 2015, The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation.

[3]  S. McDonald.  Impairments in Social Cognition Following Severe Traumatic Brain Injury , 2013, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

[4]  J. Krupnick.  A Meta-Analysis of Cognitive Remediation for Schizophrenia: Methodology and Effect Sizes , 2012 .

[5]  M. Bullinger,et al.  Quality of life after traumatic brain injury: The clinical use of the QOLIBRI, a novel disease-specific instrument , 2010, Brain injury.

[6]  R. Tate,et al.  A randomised controlled trial evaluating a brief intervention for deficits in recognising emotional prosody following severe ABI , 2013, Neuropsychological rehabilitation.

[7]  J. Fleming,et al.  Remediation of social communication impairments following traumatic brain injury using metacognitive strategy intervention: a pilot study , 2017, Brain injury.

[8]  Nicolas Franck,et al.  RC2S: A Cognitive Remediation Program to Improve Social Cognition in Schizophrenia and Related Disorders , 2014, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[9]  P. Cornwell,et al.  Systematic Review of Behavioral Interventions Targeting Social Communication Difficulties After Traumatic Brain Injury. , 2016, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[10]  S. McDonald,et al.  Addressing deficits in emotion recognition after severe traumatic brain injury: The role of focused attention and mimicry , 2009, Neuropsychological rehabilitation.

[11]  Carlo Caltagirone,et al.  Theory of mind impairment after severe traumatic brain injury and its relationship with caregivers' quality of life. , 2015, Restorative neurology and neuroscience.

[12]  H. Sitte,et al.  A Novel Heterocyclic Compound CE-104 Enhances Spatial Working Memory in the Radial Arm Maze in Rats and Modulates the Dopaminergic System , 2016, Front. Behav. Neurosci..

[13]  M. Milders,et al.  Deficits in Facial Emotion Recognition Indicate Behavioral Changes and Impaired Self-Awareness after Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury , 2013, PloS one.

[14]  D. Brooks,et al.  Personality and behavioural change after severe blunt head injury--a relative's view. , 1983, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[15]  L. Fasotti,et al.  Effectiveness of a Treatment for Impairments in Social Cognition and Emotion Regulation (T-ScEmo) After Traumatic Brain Injury: A Randomized Controlled Trial , 2017, The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation.

[16]  W. Gaebel,et al.  Facial affect recognition in the course of schizophrenia , 2005, European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.

[17]  M. Kurtz,et al.  Social cognitive training for schizophrenia: a meta-analytic investigation of controlled research. , 2012, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[18]  J. Grafman,et al.  A need for improved training interventions for the remediation of impairments in social functioning following brain injury. , 2011, Journal of neurotrauma.

[19]  C. Caltagirone,et al.  Low Self-Awareness of Individuals With Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Can Lead to Reduced Ability to Take Another Person's Perspective , 2014, The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation.

[20]  B. Bara,et al.  Rehabilitation of Communicative Abilities in Patients with a History of TBI: Behavioral Improvements and Cerebral Changes in Resting-State Activity , 2016, Front. Behav. Neurosci..

[21]  E. Twamley,et al.  A meta-analysis of cognitive remediation in schizophrenia. , 2007, The American journal of psychiatry.

[22]  M. Bigdeli,et al.  Intra-cerebral cannabidiol infusion-induced neuroprotection is partly associated with the TNF-α/TNFR1/NF-кB pathway in transient focal cerebral ischaemia , 2017, Brain injury.

[23]  Vyv Huddy,et al.  A Meta-Analysis of Cognitive Remediation for Schizophrenia: Methodology and Effect Sizes , 2012 .

[24]  M. Milders,et al.  Social cognition impairments in relation to general cognitive deficits, injury severity, and prefrontal lesions in traumatic brain injury patients. , 2012, Journal of neurotrauma.

[25]  Dawn Neumann,et al.  Perspective training to treat anger problems after brain injury: Two case studies. , 2016, NeuroRehabilitation.

[26]  R. Kessels,et al.  Social Cognitive Interventions in Neuropsychiatric Patients: A Meta-Analysis , 2016, Brain Impairment.

[27]  Dennis Helffenstein,et al.  The use of interpersonal process recall (IPR) in the remediation of interpersonal and communication skill deficits in the newly brain-injured. , 1982 .

[28]  D. Moher,et al.  Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement , 2009, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[29]  Rita Formisano,et al.  Neuropsychiatric Disorders in Persons With Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: Prevalence, Phenomenology, and Relationship With Demographic, Clinical, and Functional Features , 2011, The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation.

[30]  R. Rehfeldt,et al.  Using stimulus equivalence technology to teach emotion recognition to adults with acquired brain injury , 2004, Brain injury.

[31]  F DeRuyter,et al.  Treatment efficacy: cognitive-communicative disorders resulting from traumatic brain injury in adults. , 1996, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[32]  J. Spikman,et al.  Cognitive and behavioral impairment in traumatic brain injury related to outcome and return to work. , 2010, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[33]  Skye McDonald,et al.  What's New in the Clinical Management of Disorders of Social Cognition? , 2017, Brain Impairment.

[34]  A. Barrett,et al.  Is it what you see, or how you say it? Spatial bias in young and aged subjects , 2008, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

[35]  É. Bayen,et al.  A comprehensive picture of 4-year outcome of severe brain injuries. Results from the PariS-TBI study. , 2016, Annals of physical and rehabilitation medicine.

[36]  S. McDonald,et al.  Treating deficits in emotion perception following traumatic brain injury , 2008, Neuropsychological rehabilitation.

[37]  B. Druss,et al.  Can psychiatry cross the quality chasm? Improving the quality of health care for mental and substance use conditions. , 2007, The American journal of psychiatry.

[38]  Nadine Bazin,et al.  ToMRemed : une technique de remédiation cognitive centrée sur la théorie de l’esprit pour les patients schizophrènes , 2010 .

[39]  M. Kelly,et al.  A Survey of Clinicians Working in Brain Injury Rehabilitation: Are Social Cognition Impairments on the Radar? , 2017, The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation.

[40]  J. Williamson,et al.  Facial Affect Recognition Training Through Telepractice: Two Case Studies of Individuals with Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury , 2015, International Journal of Telerehabilitation.

[41]  Robert Teasell,et al.  INCOG Recommendations for Management of Cognition Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Part IV: Cognitive Communication , 2014, The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation.

[42]  C. Passerieux,et al.  Caractéristiques cliniques et évolutives des patients atteints de schizophrénie pris en charge avec le module de remédiation cognitive ToMRemed. Étude multicentrique en soins courants portant sur 110 patients , 2017 .

[43]  M. Kelly,et al.  Learning from the minds of others: A review of social cognition treatments and their relevance to traumatic brain injury , 2019, Neuropsychological rehabilitation.

[44]  Joanne Azulay,et al.  Evidence-based cognitive rehabilitation: updated review of the literature from 2003 through 2008. , 2011, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[45]  J. Ponsford,et al.  Functional outcome 10 years after traumatic brain injury: Its relationship with demographic, injury severity, and cognitive and emotional status , 2008, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

[46]  David Gunnell,et al.  Internet searches for a specific suicide method follow its high-profile media coverage. , 2011, The American journal of psychiatry.

[47]  W. Wölwer,et al.  Remediation of facial affect recognition impairments in patients with schizophrenia: a new training program , 2003, Psychiatry Research.

[48]  S. McDonald,et al.  Comparing Strategies for Treating Emotion Perception Deficits in Traumatic Brain Injury , 2008, The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation.

[49]  M. Zettin,et al.  Cognitive Pragmatic Treatment: A Rehabilitative Program for Traumatic Brain Injury Individuals , 2015, The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation.

[50]  R. Tate,et al.  Social skills treatment for people with severe, chronic acquired brain injuries: a multicenter trial. , 2008, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[51]  C. Dahlberg,et al.  Treatment efficacy of social communication skills training after traumatic brain injury: a randomized treatment and deferred treatment controlled trial. , 2007, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[52]  M. Tomita,et al.  Training Emotional Processing in Persons With Brain Injury , 2009, The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation.

[53]  Kirsten F. Lamberts,et al.  Self-Awareness After Brain Injury: Relation with Emotion Recognition and Effects of Treatment , 2016, Brain Impairment.

[54]  Magdalena Ietswaart,et al.  Social behavior following traumatic brain injury and its association with emotion recognition, understanding of intentions, and cognitive flexibility , 2008, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.