Verbal self-regulation of impulsive behavior of persons with frontal lobe brain injury

A multiple-baseline across participants design was used to examine effects of a verbal self-regulatory procedure on direct measures of impulsivity associated with frontal lobe brain damage. Four young men participated in socially interactive group sessions with a therapist who (a) assisted the participants in selecting individualized instructions on how to behave, (b) provided participants with feedback on their correspondence between instructions and nonverbal behavior, and (c) gradually reduced assistance while participants maintained self-monitoring. Results show that the verbal self-regulation was efficacious in reducing impulsive behavior to clinically significant levels during the group sessions, although effects with I participant were variable.