Rehabilitation of discourse impairments after acquired brain injury

Language impairments in patients with acquired brain injury can have a negative impact on social life as well as on other cognitive domains. Discourse impairments are among the most commonly reported communication deficits among patients with acquired brain damage. Despite advances in the development of diagnostic tools for detecting such impairments, few studies have investigated interventions to rehabilitate patients presenting with these conditions. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to present a systematic review of the methods used in the rehabilitation of discourse following acquired brain injury. METHODS: The PubMed database was searched for articles using the following keywords: "rehabilitation", "neurological injury", "communication" and "discursive abilities". RESULTS: A total of 162 abstracts were found, but only seven of these met criteria for inclusion in the review. Four studies involved samples of individuals with aphasia whereas three studies recruited samples of individuals with traumatic brain injury. CONCLUSION: All but one article found that patient performance improved following participation in a discourse rehabilitation program.