[Strategies to follow in the design of neuropsychological rehabilitation programs for brain injured people].
BACKGROUND
Before initiating the planning of the neuropsychological rehabilitation program for a brain injured patient, it is necessary to make and comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. This evaluation has to be oriented, not only to the scores obtained, but how cognitive processes are deteriorated. In this sense, it is very important to pay attention to the strategies used by the subject to carry out each one of the tasks that we present to him, and the emotional factors that can influence in the success of the rehabilitation program like, for example, awareness of the deficits or familiar and social pressures.


METHODS
The neuropsychological rehabilitation program must take care of several fundamental issues: 1. The treatment of the altered cognitive functions (cognitive rehabilitation): the use of different principles like the restoration, the compensation or the substitution will be determined. 2. The modification of the dysadaptative behaviors (irritability, aggressiveness, etc.) by means of different operating techniques. 3. The professional readaptation or reintegration: one of the final objectives of the rehabilitation is the reintegration of the brain injured person in the work or studies that did before or in those for which is enabled. 4. The psychosocial support: it is impo0rtant to work with the relatives and the social surroundings, specially the paper of the associations and the support groups. The design of the rehabilitation program must be focused to the specific necessities of each individual patient. It is also advisable to combine the individual and group treatment sessions.
Fernández-Guinea
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Depart. Basic Psychology II; School of Psychology.Complutense University Madrid, Madrid, España. sguinea@uajen.es
D001521:Behavior Therapy; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational; D012944:Social Support