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Primary objective: To examine the effect of cognitive rehabilitation therapy (CRT) on psychosocial outcomes in Argentinean patients with acquired brain injury (ABI), in connection with the time elapsed between injury and treatment initiation. Research design: Self-reported data from patients in a naturalistic setting was collected before and after CRT. Methods and procedure: An outpatient sample of 75 Spanish-speaking patients with cognitive disturbances secondary to ABI (49 male/26 female, age: 50.2 ± 20.1 years; education 14.3 ± 3.2 years) completed a set of scales on their daily living activities, memory self-perception, quality-of-life and mood. Single and multi-group analyses were conducted, considering pre- and post- responses and the time elapsed between injury and treatment initiation. The influence of socio-demographic moderators was controlled during comparisons. Main results: Results suggest an improvement in several psychosocial indicators after treatment. Additionally, correlations and group comparisons showed greater improvement in subjective memory and quality-of-life self-reports in patients who began treatment earlier than those who began treatment after a longer time period. Conclusions: Overall, results suggest that CRT is associated with positive results in different areas of the psychosocial domain and that post-injury time can mediate this effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: As the older population increases so does the number of older psychiatric patients. Elderly psychiatric patients manifest certain specific and unique characteristics. Different subtypes of depressive syndromes exist in late-life depression, and many of these are associated with cognitive impairment. Materials and methods: A total of 109 depressive patients and 30 normal subjects matched by age and educational level were evaluated using a neuropsychiatric interview and an extensive neuropsychological battery. Depressive patients were classified into four different groups by SCAN 2.1 (schedules for clinical assessment in Neuropsychiatry): major depression disorder (n: 34), dysthymia disorder (n: 29), subsyndromal depression (n: 28), and depression due to mild dementia of Alzheimer''s type (n: 18). Results: We found significant associations (p<.05) between depressive status and demographic or clinical factors that include marital status (OR: 3.4, CI: 1.2–9.6), level of daily activity (OR: 5.3, CI: 2–14), heart disease (OR: 12.5, CI: 1.6–96.3), and high blood cholesterol levels (p:.032). Neuropsychological differences were observed among the four depressive groups and also between depressive patients and controls. Significant differences were observed in daily life activities and caregivers'' burden between depressive patients and normal subjects. Conclusion: Geriatric depression is associated with heart disease, high cholesterol blood levels, marital status, and daily inactivity. Different subtypes of geriatric depression have particular clinical features, such as cognitive profiles, daily life activities, and caregivers'' burden, that can help to differentiate among them. Limitations: The cohort referred to a memory clinic with memory complaints is a biased sample, and the results cannot be generalized to other non-memory symptomatic cohorts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]