Anger self-management training for people with traumatic brain injury: a preliminary investigation.

OBJECTIVE

: To examine the feasibility and gather preliminary data on the efficacy of a fully manualized, 8-session, psychoeducational treatment for irritability and anger after traumatic brain injury (TBI), called anger self-management training (ASMT).

PARTICIPANTS

: A total of 10 persons with moderate to severe, chronic TBI with significant cognitive impairment and elevated levels of anger and irritability participated in the study; 8 had significant others (SOs) who participated in portions of the treatment and provided pre- and posttreatment measures; 1 SO provided only data.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

: Two subscales of the State-Trait Anger Expression Scale-Revised and Brief Anger-Aggression Questionnaire.

DESIGN

: Pre- to posttreatment pilot study.

RESULTS

: There was significant improvement on all 3 measures of self-reported anger, with large effect sizes (>1.0), and on 1 of 3 SO-reported scales. Qualitative feedback from participants was positive and dropout rate was low (1 of 11).

CONCLUSIONS

: The treatment model represented by the ASMT appears worthy of further study in persons with TBI who have both problematic anger and cognitive impairment.