Cognitive stimulation through mhealth-based program for patients with alcohol dependence syndrome: A randomized controlled study

Alcohol abuse can impact on general cognitive functioning and more particularly on frontal lobe functions. One option available to reduce this impact may rest on rehabilitation paradigms that include cognitive stimulation programmes. This paper reports on a randomized controlled study where two samples of patients with alcohol dependence syndrome where enrolled: (i) on a mHealth-based cognitive stimulation program (CSP) within alcohol dependence treatment (experimental group); and (ii) on the alcohol dependence treatment without CSP (control group). The CSP mHealth applications consisted of a series of serious games designed to stimulate frontal lobe functions. Assessment was conducted with the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Frontal Assessment Battery. After 10 stimulation sessions the experimental group evidenced a significant improvement on frontal-lobe functioning when compared with the control group. As expected, no differences on general cognitive functioning were found between groups.