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Summary Objective/Background: Flow is the holistic experience that occurs when an individual acts with total involvement. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of attention training that induces flow experience for patients with attention-deficit disorder after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: A two-patient case report with a within-subject AB design was conducted. Two patients with attention deficit after TBI were recruited for attention training. Two types of video game tasks for attention training were created, one inducing flow (flow task) and the other not (control task). Patient A performed the flow task for 14 days after receiving general occupational therapy (OT) for 11 days. Patient B performed the flow task for 15 days after performing the control task for 10 days. We examined training effects using neuropsychological tests. The Flow State Scale for Occupational Tasks was administered to identify the patient's flow state. To evaluate the training effect, we used visual analysis, the two-standard deviation band method, and effect-size analyses. Results: Both Patient A and Patient B showed improvement on the Continuous Performance Test, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, and Moss Attention Rating Scale after the flow task. Patient B also showed improvement on the Trail Making Test. Conclusion: The results for Patient A suggested that the flow task was more effective than general OT for improving attention deficits. Moreover, the results for Patient B suggested that the flow task was more effective than the control task. Attention training inducing flow experience may thus facilitate improvement of attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Background: The degree of a patient's absorption in tasks as a measure of rehabilitation effectiveness has yet to be studied. The objective of this study is to develop a scale that can measure a patient's flow state in a clinical situation such as occupational therapy (OT). Methods: The final 14 items were determined from the comprehensive assessment of item analysis results by a preliminary experiment. A total of 240 participants engaged in computer games that induced three psychological states: flow, anxiety, and boredom. After performing each task, participants completed our flow scale and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The reliability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The validity was confirmed from three viewpoints, namely, the correlation coefficient with the STAI, the discrimination power of each psychological state, and the accuracy of factor structure. An occupational analysis of various activities was also conducted to confirm that the computer game task was representative of measurable activities. Results: Cronbach's alpha coefficient was .918. The total score of the scale was significantly negatively correlated with the total score of STAI (r = -.537, p < .01 ). A significant difference among each psychological state was observed (p < .01). Covariance structure analysis indicated that the model fit index showed an acceptable fit. The computer game task used in this experiment was closely related to games, crafts, learning, cooking, and playing an instrument. Conclusion: Our flow scale appears to have satisfactory reliability and validity to verify quantitatively whether the occupational tasks used in OT can effectively provide a flow experience for patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]