The reported prevalence of cognitive deficits within the first month of stroke ranges widely from 10% to 82%, depending primarily on the criteria used to define cognitive impairment and on the selected patient population. These cognitive defects progress toward impairment over a course of time if left untreated. Among the most common cognitive deficits are the attentional, the visuoperceptual, the memory and executive function deficits. As these impairments are being increasingly recognized in the scientific communities, more and more studies are being devoted to the outcomes of various therapies for these disorders. In this review, we focus on the outcomes of various therapies for these cognitive disorders over time. We reviewed all the possible medical databases using key words for individual cognitive deficit treatment outcomes. All the possible studies including randomized controlled trials, pre-post design studies, case series and single case reports were included in this study. On the basis of present literature review, we conclude that the evidence is definitively positive only for outcomes of attentional and visuoperceptive skill deficits. On the other hand, there have been very few studies to conclude for effectiveness of various therapies for memory and executive function outcomes.
Keywords: Cognition; interventions; neuropsychological outcome; stroke.