The purpose of the present research was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on executive functions of war survivors with pos t-traumatic s tress (PTSD). Materials and Methods: It was semi-experimental research with pre-tes t, pos t-tes t, experiment, and control groups. The population of the research includes all injured people of Kermanshah City. 30 subjects were selected by purposeful sampling (15 per group). Barkley's psychological executive functions disorder scale (BDEFS) and Wooders et al. Traumatic Stress Disorder Lis t (1994) were used to collecting data. Results: The results showed that cognitive rehabilitation increased self-control/inhibition, self-motivation, and total score of executive performances in the experimental group compared with the control group. The same findings were observed in the follow-up tes ts, which indicated the persis tent effect of cognitive rehabilitation on mentioned s tructures. Conclusion: Cognitive rehabilitation can be used as an effective therapeutic approach to reduce psychological and physical dysfunctions as well as to improve executive performances in people with war-related injuries and PTSD.
Background: According to the fact that executive functions are set of interrelated skills that highly influence the standards of living of the surviving combat veterans, this research was conducted with the aim of examining the effect of cognitive rehabilitation and Transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) on the executive functions of surviving combat veterans with PTSD. Methods: In quasi-experimental research, 60 combat veterans with PTSD in Kermanshah were chosen by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to four experimental groups (2 treatment groups, placebo/sham group, a control group). In order to collect data, the Barclays Psychological Performance Disorder Assessment Questionnaire (BDEFS), and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder List (Wooders et al. 1994) were applied. The obtained data were analyzed by applying Multivariable Analyze of Covariance. Results: The results of the Fisher's Least Significant Difference (LSD) Post-Hoc test showed that TDCS is more effective than Cognitive Rehabilitation in promoting self-control/ inhibition, self-motivation, emotion self-regulation, and total score of executive functions (P < 0.01) and P < 0.05). Finally, the results indicated that the post-test results were repeated in the follow-up test and this represents the stability of the effectiveness of TDCS and Cognitive Rehabilitation on the mentioned constructs. Conclusions: The results of the current research can be used as a new approach to reduce the problems of veterans with PTSD, and enhance the quality of their life by improving their executive functioning.
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