EFFECTIVENESS OF NEGLECT REHABILITATION IN A RANDOMIZED GROUP-STUDY

The effectiveness of neglect rehabilitation training has been studied in two randomly selected groups of right brain-damaged patients. All p atients proved heminattentive on a standard battery 2 month's or more after the CVA. One group received 2 months of treatment immediately af ter admission to a clinic, and the other group received only general c ognitive stimulation for the same amount of time. At the end of this p eriod a comparison showed significant improvement in the first group, based on a standard test battery and a functional scale. The second gr oup was then given rehabilitation training for neglect for the same am ount of time and obtained similar improvement. It is concluded that th e rehabilitation program produces significant results, which generaliz e to situations similar to those of everyday life. The importance of t he duration of training on the generalization of learning is briefly d iscussed with reference to previous negative reports in the literature .