BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOTHERAPY OF THE FRONTAL-LOBE-INJURED PATIENT IN AN OUTPATIENT SETTING

We present two cases of outpatient behavioural psychotherapy of fronta l-lobe brain-injured adults. Unlike inpatient treatment of severely fr ontal-injured patients in which the hospital setting acts on the patie nt to modify behaviour, outpatient treatment teaches the self-motivate d individual to use the structure and directiveness of behavioural psy chotherapy to overcome his or her neuropsychological deficits. The lit erature describes two types of frontal syndromes: disinhibition and ad ynamia. Treatment of both types of syndromes is illustrated using case presentations. The therapeutic interventions for both syndromes are d esigned to exaggerate the link between stimulus and response to counte r impaired processing of feedback. A six-stage behavioural psychothera py model of the frontal-injured patient is outlined.