Hypoxia: Can neuropsychological rehabilitation attenuate neuropsychological dysfunction

Anoxia and hypoxia may be caused by a number of events - heart attack, strangulation, anesthetic accidents, or poisoning. Cognitive dysfunction in hypoxia is well described. The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of neuropsychological rehabilitation in hypoxic brain damage. Single-case pre post intervention study design was adopted. The neuropsychological profile was compared pre- and post-neuropsychological rehabilitation. A 30-year-old woman with diagnosis of post- hypoxic encephalopathy underwent cognitive retaining every day for 1 hour. She had a total of 138 sessions over a period of 7 months. Results indicated improvement of cognitive functions post cognitive retraining in most of the cognitive domains. This improvement was also found to have a generalization effect in her every day functioning. Cognitive retraining was found to be useful in hypoxic brain damage. Cognitive retraining combined with other adjunct therapy was found to have significant impact on the patient and the family members. the significant others