Cognitive rehabilitation as a component of early intervention in Alzheimer s disease: a single case study

Early intervention in Alzheimer's disease ( AD) should focus on psychological and social needs as well as the provision of medication. One possible component of early intervention programmes for people with early-stage AD is cognitive rehabilitation aimed at fostering the development of strategies for coping with memory problems. The likely relevance of cognitive rehabilitation in early-stage AD is supported by neuropsychological and experimental learning studies, but further work is required to develop clinically relevant interventions, which can be applied in the real-life setting. This paper presents a single case intervention study in which a 66-year-old man with early-stage AD learned the names of 13 members of his support group using a mnemonic strategy coupled with either expanding rehearsal or repeated presentation, or both, within an errorless learning paradigm. Recall scores improved from a mean of 2.31% at initial baseline to 91.46% following intervention, and gains were largely maintained at follow-up. There was no evidence of any increase in depression, anxiety or caregiver strain during the intervention. The results support the view that cognitive rehabilitation interventions may form a valuable component of comprehensive early intervention programmes for people with AD.