New Technique for Strengthening Memory Holds Promise for Severe TBI Patients

James Sumowski, PhD and colleagues at the Kessler Foundation in New Jersey have published research on 10 patients showing the effectiveness of a new memory therapy for people with severe TBI The Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Volume 95, Issue 2 (390-396) February 2014. The research showed that RP (retrieval practice) was superior to two older methods of strengthening memory in severe TBI patients known as MR (massed restudy) and SR (spaced restudy). RP works by testing how well severe TBI patients recall the content of paragraphs immediately after they read them. Although the results appear promising a group of just 10 test subjects without a control group is not sufficient to validate the technique. More studies involving larger samples will be done in the future.