Effectiveness of neuropsychological rehabilitation on memory and mood management of people with stroke

Abstract Background and aim: Globally, stroke ranks as the second most common cause of death and places a substantial financial burden on society. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of neuropsychological rehabilitation on memory and mood regulation among stroke patients residing in Yasuj city. Methods: A semi-experimental research design was employed in this study, which included a pretest, posttest, and a 6-month follow-up. The study focused on stroke patients between the ages of 20 and 60 residing in Yasuj city from 2021 to 2022. Thirty individuals were purposefully selected from the statistical population, and then, using random sampling were divided into two groups, experimental (15 individuals) and control (15 individuals). The experimental group underwent 22 sessions of 90-minute treatments. To collect research data, the following measures were used: Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the protocol for neuropsychological rehabilitation treatment, the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS), the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Harrington's frustration tolerance questionnaire, and the go/no-go test. The statistical analysis of the research data was conducted by utilizing the covariance or variance test with repeated measurements along with the Bonferroni post hoc test and SPSS-21 software. Results: The results showed that the neuro-psychotherapeutic rehabilitation approach had a significant effect on memory (F=92.37, p=0.001), as well as on the components of mood management, including anxiety (F=90.42, p=0.001), depression (F=85.6, p=0.001), learned helplessness (F=68.9, p=0.001), and reactivity (F=46.8, p=0.001) in individuals with stroke. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that among the therapeutic methods useful for memory rehabilitation and mood management, neuropsychological rehabilitation is one of the most effective methods.