INCOG Updated Guidelines for Cognitive Rehabilitation Following Traumatic Brain Injury

A team of international researchers—known as INCOG—have recently updated the guidelines for cognitive rehabilitation for patients following a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

The major update recognizes the tools commonly used during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new guidelines also highlight newly available tools that make it easier for clinicians to take the recommendations and translate them to clinical practice.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a rapid pivot to telehealth-assisted rehabilitation and therefore we felt that updated evidence-based recommendations for in-person and virtual cognitive rehabilitation were both timely and necessary,” the authors explained.

Further, the updates focus on addressing critical issues in cognitive rehabilitation after TBI, including: (1) posttraumatic amnesia management, (2) new approaches to executive function, (3) revised recommendations for cognitive-communication disorders, and (4) strategies for memory impairment rehabilitation.

The researchers emphasize their strong recommendation for clinicians to prioritize cognitive rehabilitation after TBI as “TBI causes diffuse damage to the brain networks” and these are “essential for attention, memory, executive functions, and cognitive aspects of communication,” the researchers wrote.

Reference:

Bayley MT, Janzen S, Harnett A, et al. INCOG 2.0 guidelines for cognitive rehabilitation following traumatic brain injury: what’s changed from 2014 to now? J Head Trauma Rehabil. 2023;38(1):1-6. doi: 10.1097/HTR.0000000000000826