M. Hofmann et al., INTERACTIVE COMPUTER-BASED COGNITIVE TRAINING IN PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE, Journal of Psychiatric Research, 30(6), 1996, pp. 493-501
The present paper presents data from ten patients suffering from mild
to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD), all of whom were trained to use
an interactive computer-based program. Using photographs of the patien
t and his or her personal surroundings, an everyday task of relevance
to the patient was simulated on a PC-touch screen, which the patient w
as trained to operate. After three weeks of training (three to four se
ssions a week), the patients needed less help in performing the progra
ms, they became faster, and eight out of ten made fewer mistakes. The
results were most pronounced in patients with a poor performance at th
e beginning, and there was no difference between early-onset (EO) and
late-onset (LO) AD patients. Although the training was generally well
received, there was no evidence of a general cognitive improvement, an
d it remains an open question whether the results achieved with PC tra
ining can be transferred to real-life situations. Copyright (C) 1996 E
lsevier Science Ltd.