THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE REHABILITATION ON PROCESSING SPEED, WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY, EXECUTIVE FUNCTION, AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS PATIENTS: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Background & Aims: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease that is the most common cause of disability and may be associated with cognitive impairment. Despite the implementation of cognitive rehabilitation (CR) studies in patients with MS, there are still no clear and conclusive results. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of CR on speed and WM capacity, executive function, and quality of life (QOL) in MS patients. Materials & Methods: The current quasi-experimental study (with a pretest-posttest plot and a control group) was conducted on 32 patients of the ….. MS Society, Iran. Participants were selected through the purposive sampling method and were divided into intervention (n=16) and waitlist groups (n=16) by the simple random method. The patients in the intervention group participated in cognitive rehabilitation for 12 sessions, individually. The scores for speed and working memory (WM) capacity, executive function, and QOL in both the groups were determined using N-Back test, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV) Digit Span subtest, Wisconsin Card Sorting (WCST), and Quality of Life Questionnaire of MS patients (MSQOL-54). The scores were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (repeated measures ANOVA). Results: The results showed that, apart from the physical domain of quality of life (QOL), the average scores in WCST and Digit Span Memory, response time in N-Beck test, and emotional QOL, differed over time and in both the intervention and waitlist groups(P<0.05). Thus, in the intervention group, the performance in speed and capacity of WM, executive function, and emotional QOL showed a significant improvement (P<0.05) in the post-test and on follow-up compared to the waitlist group. Conclusion: Cognitive rehabilitation, based on these findings, is likely to be effective in improving the speed and capacity of working memory, executive function, and quality of life of MS patients.