Treatment for Social Cognition Disorders (T-ScEmo) in Patients With Acquired Brain Injury and Comorbid Neuropsychiatric Problems

Functioning in social situations is measured by using a Social Functioning Scale (SFS), where patients and proxies rate the patient's functioning in social situations on a 10-point scale from 1 ("not at all") to 10 ("entirely"). The following question will be asked to patients and proxies: "How satisfied are you today with your (or your partner's) functioning in social situations?" Higher scores indicate more satisfaction.

Neuropsychiatric behavior problems are measured by using a Neuropsychiatric behavior Problems Scale (NPS), where patients and proxies rate the patient's neuropsychiatric behavior problems on a 10-point scale from 1 ("not at all") to 10 ("entirely"). The following question will be asked to patients and proxies: "To what extent did you (or your partner) experience neuropsychiatric behavioral problems today?". 'Neuropsychiatric behavioral problems' refer to the neuropsychiatric problems that the client is (most) affected by (e.g. irritability, aggression, disinhibition, depression, anxiety).

Higher scores indicate more neuropsychiatric problems.

Relationship quality is measured by using the Relationship Quality Scale (RQS), where patients and proxies rate the quality of their relationship on a 10-point scale from 1 ("not at all") to 10 ("entirely"). Higher scores indicate more satisfaction.

The Dysexecutive Questionnaire - Social scales (DEX-Soc-self; DEX-Soc-proxy) will be filled out by participant and proxy. The DEX subscales 'Meta cognition' (items 2, 5, 12, 16, 20), 'Social convention' (items 9, 12, 13, 20), and 'Behavioral emotional self-regulation' (items 3, 7, 8) will be filled out. The items are scored on a 4-point scale (0 = never to 4 = very often), with higher scores indicating more problems.

The Brock's Adaptive Functioning Questionnaire Social monitoring scale (BAFQ-SMself, BAFQ-SM-proxy) will be filled out by participant and proxy. The items are scored on a 5-point scale (1 = almost never to 5 = almost ever), with higher scores indicating more problems.

The IRI (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) will be filled out by the participant. The IRI is a 28-item multidimensional scale that measures empathy. The scale measures both the cognitive and affective aspects of empathy. The IRI consists of 4 subscales, each containing 7 items. Higher scores indicate a higher level of empathy.

The Brock's Adaptive Functioning Questionnaire Empathy scale (BAFQ-Emp-self, BAFQ-Emp-proxy) will be filled out by participant and proxy. The items are scored on a 5-point scale (1 = almost never to 5 = almost ever), with higher scores indicating more problems.

The Neuropsychiatrische Vragenlijst-Questionnaire (NPI-Q) will be filled out by the proxy. The NPI-Q is a validated questionnaire, aimed at inventorying neuropsychiatric symptoms that have occurred in the past month. For each domain, the answer is initially given as "Yes" (present) or "No" (absent). If the answer is "No," the informant proceeds to the next question. If the answer is "Yes," the informant assesses both the severity of the symptoms that occurred in the past month (three-point scale) and the psychological burden it caused for him or her (six-point scale). The NPI-Q provides a severity rating and an assessment of the emotional burden for each reported symptom, as well as summed total scores for Severity and Emotional Burden. Higher scores indicate more problems.

The the La Trobe Questionnaire (LCQ-S / LCQ-O) will be filled out by participant and proxy. The LCQ-S is a 30-item self-report questionnaire that assesses perceived communication quality in patients with ABI. Items of the LCQ-O are the same as those that appear in de LCQ-S, except they are phrased in the third person. Higher scores indicate more problems.

The Dutch Marital Satisfaction and Communication Questionnaire (DMSCQ) will be filled out by participant and proxy. The DMSCQ is a 16-item questionnaire that disentangles marital satisfaction, negative communication and open communication on a 7-point scale ("not at all applicable" to "highly applicable")

The Caregiver Strain Index (CSI) will be filled out by the proxy to detect caregiver strain. The CSI is a 13-item questionnaire with dichotomous yes/no answers. Higher scores indicate more problems.

The FEEST (Sixty faces test) will be administered to test the recognition of facial affect. Participants are presented with 60 photographs of faces displaying the various primary emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, angst, disgust, and surprise), with 10 faces of each primary emotion. The photographs are shown for 3 seconds. Higher scores indicate a better performance.

The Cartoon test will be administered to test mental state attribution. The Cartoon test incorporates 12 cartoons displaying humorous situations. Higher scores indicate a better performance.

Other neuropsychological tests are used to assess possible effects of cognitive (dis)functioning on effectiveness of the treatment, neuropsychological tests on attention, executive functioning, and memory will be administered before treatment: Trail Making Test (TMT) A + B, TMT B/A; BADS Zoo-map; 15-word test.