Poppelreuter, M., Weis, J., & Bartsch, H.H. (2009). Effects of specific neuropyschological training programs for breast cancer patients after adjuvant chemotherapy. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 27(2), 274–296.
The study was conducted to evaluate the need of patients with breast cancer for neuropsychological rehabilitation after adjuvant chemotherapy. It also sought to determine the effectiveness of differentiated training programs after completion of treatment.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of two intervention groups. Control participants were selected from the “time-out” phase of the study when no training was being offered.
Both intervention groups took part in four one-hour training sessions per week during their inpatient stay. Participants were randomized to one of the following outpatient interventions.
Measures were completed upon admission to the rehabilitation unit (T1), at the end of in-patient rehabilitation (T2), and six months later on an outpatient basis (T3).
The study took place at the Tumor Biology Center Rehabilitation Unit in Freiburg, Germany.
The study utilized a randomized, controlled trial.
No intervention effects were noted in this study. Significant improvement was noted in 11 of 16 neuropsychiatric parameters for all three groups between T1 and T2. Forty participants (44.4%) maintained at least one cognitive deficit at five months; 19 (21.1%) maintained two or more deficits at T3.
Both intervention groups received similar amounts of training sessions. Eighty-four participants (87.5%) had at least one impaired neuropsychological parameter and 54 (56.2%) had two or more at baseline.
No significant differences in cognitive ability between treatment groups were reported.