The effects of computer-based cognitive rehabilitation program (CoTras) on the verbal fluency of korean patients with mild dementia

The objectives of this study were to identify the effects of computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation (CACR) program on the verbal fluency among the executive functions of the prefrontal lobe and provide the baseline data for the cognitive-linguistic rehabilitation of dementia patients.

This study selected 25 patients who were diagnosed with mild dementia by a psychiatrist among the dementia patients. The subjects were randomly assigned to the treatment group (n=13), which conducted a CACR intervention program, and the control group (n=12), which carried out a traditional cognitive rehabilitation intervention program (e.g., pencil and paper, and table-top activity). CoTras was used for the CACR program. The controlled oral word association test (COWAT) was conducted to measure the cognitive level by using the computerized neurocognitive function test (CNT).

The results of ANCOVA showed that the changes in the semantic fluency (total score) and MMSE-K (total score) were significantly (p<0.05) different between the treatment group and the control group. The results of parameter estimation revealed that the semantic fluency of the treatment group was 1.8 higher than that of the control group on average and the difference was significant. Moreover, the MMSE-K of the treatment group was 1.1 higher than that of the control group on average and the difference was significant. On the other hand, the phonemic fluency was significantly increased after 4 weeks of treatment compared to baseline in both treatment and control groups. However, it was not significantly different between the treatment group and the control group.

The results of this study suggest that the CACR program is more effective in improving the semantic fluency than the traditional cognitive rehabilitation program. Randomized controlled trials are needed to verify the effects of long-term CACR programs.