ThinkRx cognitive training for adults over age 50: Clinician–caregiver partners in delivery as effective as clinician-only delivery.

Abstract

Many cognitive training interventions described in the extant literature predominately target only 1 or 2 domains, are very short in duration, and fail to generalize beyond the trained tasks. The aim of the current study was to evaluate differences in cognitive outcomes and self-reported real-life improvements between 2 methods of delivering the ThinkRx cognitive training intervention: professional delivery solely by a clinician versus a partnership model where a caregiver or spouse delivers half of the intervention at home. ThinkRx cognitive training is a clinician-delivered intervention targeting multiple cognitive skills, including working memory, long-term memory, visualization and visual processing, auditory discrimination, logic and reasoning, processing speed, and attention. The sample included records from 292 participants ranging in age from 51 to 95 (M ϭ 60.77, SD ϭ 9.04) presenting with subjective memory or attention complaints at the time of pretest. Participants completed an average of 79 training hours. The results showed no significant differences between delivery methods on any cognitive skills measured and few remarkable differences in self-reported real-life changes. Both delivery methods resulted in significant pretest to posttest gains across all 6 cognitive skills measured and self-reported changes in 5 key areas: mood, memory, cognitive efficiency, life application skills, and focus/attention. The results of the current study also suggest sharing the delivery of an intense, lengthy, multiconstruct cognitive training program to adults over 50 with nonclinical, subjective memory and attention complaints is associated with cognitive improvements and generalized improvements in real life.

Neuroimaging and Neuropsychological Outcomes Following Clinician-Delivered Cognitive Training for Six Patients With Mild Brain Injury: A Multiple Case Study

“…In addition, half of the patients reported problems with driving that resolved following the intervention. These quality of life findings are consistent with our previous research on the same intervention with both children and adults in which we found transfer to improvements in relationships, self-confidence, cognition, work and school performance, and daily life skills ( Ledbetter et al, 2017 ; Moore et al, 2018 , 2019 ; James et al, 2019 ). While this study did not attempt to statistically correlate the cognitive and behavioral variables, these trends corroborate current research on the relationship between cognitive and social outcomes ( Kuiper et al, 2016 ).…”

The Promise of Clinician-Delivered Cognitive Training for Children Diagnosed with ADHD

“…The treatment group outperformed the control group on all cognitive measures with significant differences between 5 of the 7 constructs. Although the sample size was small, these outcomes were consistent with the results from several other studies on LearningRx cognitive training interventions (ThinkRx and ReadRx) for children and adolescents with learning struggles including ADHD [34][35][36][37][38] , soldiers with traumatic brain injury 39 , and adults over age 50 with memory and attention complaints 40 . In one study of 61 children with learning disabilities including attention deficits, the treatment group outperformed the control group on all measures with significant differences noted on measures of long-term memory, logic and reasoning, working memory, processing speed, auditory processing, and Word Attack skills after completing 120 hours of LearningRx cognitive training 35 .…”

Feasibility of a Functional Medicine Approach to Slowing Clinical Cognitive Decline in Patients over Age 55: A Multiple Case Study Report

“…A combination of trainer-delivered mental and physical exercise sessions with spouse-supported independent sessions may be most feasible. Prior research on the cognitive training program used in the current study suggests spouses can effectively deliver part of the training at home and achieve similar results to clinician-only delivery [45].…”

“…Under the supervision of the psychologist on the research team, all patients received cliniciandelivered cognitive training using the Brain Booster [41] program by LearningRx. Although cognitive training programs vary in the skills targeted and delivery mechanism of training (for example, computer games that target memory and attention [42][43][44] versus comprehensive clinician-delivered cognitive training of multiple cognitive skills [45][46][47][48]), cognitive training is supported by a growing body of research suggesting it can improve brain plasticity, memory, quality of life, and outlook [45,[49][50][51]. Brain Booster targets multiple cognitive constructs including processing speed, attention, working memory, long-term memory, fluid reasoning, visual processing, and auditory processing.…”