Background: Studies of therapy influence on after-aphasia marital relations are lacking. Much needs to be learned about the range of factors associated with couples benefiting from therapy. Understanding these issues is key to facilitating optimal post-aphasia outcomes from the perspective of the patient and his caretaking spouse. This paper reports an evaluation of a group therapy intervention conducted with aphasic people and their life partners. Methods: The intervention comprised of 10 sessions of approximately 90 min duration and included two groups of couples, with fluent and non-fluent aphasic partner. The therapy program consisted of basic communication activities within the group which encouraged sharing of personal experience but mostly relied on psychoeducation, gaining knowledge about after-stroke aphasia. The respondents were interviewed and completed neuropsychological assessment. Quality of marriage was determined using Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Marital adjustment was measured twice, before intervention and after 6 months. Long-time effects of therapy included a significant mean difference in quality of marriage between therapy attendants and controls. Marital relationship decline seems to be worse amongst control subjects, who were not involved in any kind of psychological support. In spite of initial non-distressed relationship they report deterioration of their bond in half a year’s time. We also showed changes in dynamics of quality of marriage during this time in all investigated groups. The implications of these findings for counseling services are discussed.

The aim of this review is to discuss the basic forms of neuropsychological rehabilitation for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). More broadly, we discussed cognitive rehabilitation therapy (CRT) which constitutes a fundamental component in therapeutic interaction at many centres worldwide. Equally presented is a comprehensive model of rehabilitation, the fundamental component of which is CRT. It should be noted that the principles of this approach first arose in Poland in the 1970s, in other words, several decades before their appearance in other programmemes. Taken into consideration are four factors conditioning the effectiveness of such a process: comprehensiveness, earlier interaction, universality and its individualized character. A comprehensive programmeme of rehabilitation covers: cognitive rehabilitation, individual and group rehabilitation with the application of a therapeutic environment, specialist vocational rehabilitation, as well as family psychotherapy. These training programmemes are conducted within the scope of the 'Academy of Life,' which provides support for the patients in their efforts and shows them the means by which they can overcome existing difficulties. Equally emphasized is the close cooperation of the whole team of specialists, as well as the active participation of the family as an essential condition for the effectiveness of rehabilitation and, in effect, a return of the patient to a relatively normal life. Also presented are newly developing neurothechnologies and the neuromarkers of brain injuries. This enables a correct diagnosis to be made and, as a result, the selection of appropriate methods for neuropsychological rehabilitation, including neurotherapy.

In spite of the rapid development in various communication-support technologies for those waking up from a coma, studies describing the sole process of reconstructing communication in this group of patients are scarce. The aim of this study was to analyze communication reactions in a minimal state of consciousness and describe the nonverbal behaviours characteristic for each stages significant for the therapy of communication. 18 severely brain-injured patients in a minimal state of consciousness participated in the half-year observation study, which included people experiencing at least 4 weeks of consciousness disorder/coma. Age of patients 25±5 years. Psychological assessment included: observation of various attempts of communications undertaken by patients, caregivers and family interview, the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and Individual Communication Sheet. Data analysis showed a significant increase in preverbal communication, both in primal and sensory areas when compared between Stage II (GCS=6-8 points) and Stage III (GCS=9-12 points). After a time, primary communication reached a high level. Patients produced communication attempts from the behaviour organization level, and an increase in the nonverbal communication level was noted. Based on observations, nonverbal communication profiles for each stage of waking up from a coma were introduced. It was found that in the process of waking up from a coma the patients communicate with the use of the preverbal level of primal communication, the sensory and behaviour organization activities. The characteristics of the communication reactions show that in Stage III there is a significant increase in two preverbal communication areas: primal and sensory acts, when compared with Stage II.

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) or otherwise insulin resistance (IR) is described as a cluster of several commonly occurring disorders, including abdominal obesity; lipids disorders, such as hypertriglyceridemia; and low levels of high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), hypertension (≥130/85 mmHg), and carbohydrates disorders, such as impaired fasting glucose or diabetes mellitus type 2. Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) constitutes insulin resistance, which is a strong risk factor for strokes. Patients with MetS are often prone to cognitive decline. Metabolic risk factors, hypertension, and diabetes, amongst them, have been hypothesized to play a great role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the development of vascular dementia. For neuropsychological diagnostic and theoretical purposes verbal fluency is defined as a cognitive function that facilitates information retrieval from memory. It engages executive control and other cognitive processes, such as selective attention, selective inhibition, mental set shifting, internal response generation, and self-monitoring, as well as imagination and psychomotor skills. A total of 90 subjects, divided into 2 groups, patients with MetS (45) and healthy controls (45), were assessed. A significant difference in performance was found between the patients and controls, both in the phonetic (p < 0.01) and semantic fluency trials (p < 0.001). The MetS patients produced less words in the letter K and animal categories. The analysis of descriptive statistics shows that the group of patients with metabolic syndrome generated fewer words in both the phonetic and semantic categories. Our study shows that there is an association between metabolic factors and the verbal fluency performance of MetS patients. This is true, especially for phonetic verbal fluency, which is traditionally connected with the frontal cortex. Lower switching signifies possible executive dysfunctions amongst people with MetS. Subjects with this condition generated more diverse words and created less standard associations. This further implies the existence of dysexecutive syndrome and the need for diagnosing patients in this direction and involving this group of people in therapy. The proper correction of MetS components may improve cognitive function.

We hypothesized that there would be a good response to relative beta training, applied to regulate the dynamics of brain function in a patient with benign partial epilepsy with Rolandic Spikes (BPERS), associated with neuropsychiatric deficits resembling the symptoms of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The patient, E.Z., age 9.3, was suffering from neuropsychiatric symptoms, cognitive dysfunction, especially attention deficits, and behavioral changes, rendering him unable to function independently in school and in many situations of everyday life. He was treated for epilepsy, but only slight progress was made. The patient took part in 20 sessions of relative beta training combined with behavioral training. We used standardized neuropsychological testing, as well as ERPs before the experiment and after the completion of the neurotherapy program. Neuropsychological testing at baseline showed multiple cognitive deficits. Over the course of neurotherapy, E.Z.’s verbal and non-verbal IQ increased significantly. His cognitive functions also improved, including immediate and delayed logical and visual recall on the WMS-III, maintaining attention on the WMS-III, and executive functions, but remained below norms. Physiologically, the patient showed substantial changes after neurotherapy, including fewer spikes and an increased P300 NOGO component. The cognitive deficits characteristic for ADHD in a child with BPERS may be unresponsive to antiepileptic treatment, but are reversible after a carefully selected neurotherapy program, combined with antiepileptic treatment. Event Related Potentials (ERPs) in the GO/NOGO task can be used to assess functional brain changes induced by neurotherapeutical programs.