The Emotion Builder: An Intervention for Emotional Deficits After Brain Injury

The Emotion Builder: An Intervention for Emotional Deficits After Brain Injury

The purpose of this study is to examine a web-based training program for treating emotional problems in people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

This is a pilot study to examine how subjects with TBI feel about the virtual reality program as a treatment and to assess the effectiveness of the virtual reality program at increasing subjects' awareness and understanding of emotions.

Inclusion Criteria:

• TBI (injury due to an external physical force);
• Moderate to severe TBI, defined either by74 Glasgow Coma Score at time of injury (≤12), or post-traumatic amnesia (≥1 day), or loss of consciousness (≥30 minutes);
• ≥1 year post-injury;
• between 18-65 years old;
• Have a moderate to high alexithymia score (≥52) on the TAS-2070 at screening.

Exclusion criteria:

• Diagnosed with pre-morbid neurological disorders (e.g. stroke, autism, alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease);
• Formerly diagnosed with a developmental disability;
• Pre-morbid diagnosis of major psychiatric disorders (e.g. schizophrenia);
• Unable to follow directions;
• Uncorrected visual or hearing impairments that would prevent sufficient task participation;
• No access to reliable transportation.