Neuroscience-Informed Psychoeducation in Traumatic Brain Injury: Conceptual Foundations, Cultural Adaptation, and Clinical Integration Publisher

Summary: Could education help after brain injury? A proposed NIPE framework may guide patients and families through recovery, but its additional clinical benefit is untested. #BrainInjury #Rehabilitation

Ramezani Z ; Kazemi S J ; Ganau M ; Sharif Alhoseini M
Source: Progress in Brain Research Published:2026

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of acquired brain injury (ABI) worldwide and can cause persistent cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social problems. Many individuals and families face these challenges across emergency care, follow-up, rehabilitation, and community settings, with limited support to understand and manage such changes. Psychoeducation is used in mental health and rehabilitation, but its application in TBI is challenging because injury-related deficits in attention, memory, insight, emotional regulation, and self-monitoring may impair learning and self-management. Psychoeducation in TBI must therefore be designed not only for the injury, but also for the injured learner. This chapter proposes neuroscience-informed psychoeducation (NIPE) as a staged, cognitively adapted framework linking brain-behavior understanding with self-management and rehabilitation engagement. Rather than treating education as a one-time transfer of information, NIPE emphasizes understanding, strategy use, and collaboration throughout recovery. The chapter situates NIPE within the burden of TBI, socioeconomic disparities, neurocognitive and psychosocial complications, and gaps in care. It describes adaptation to cognitive readiness, health literacy, sociocultural context, and family systems, and integration into multidisciplinary, community-based, and digitally supported care pathways. Implementation barriers, ethical considerations, and outcome evaluation are also discussed. Overall, NIPE is proposed as a psychoeducational framework that complements rehabilitation by helping patients and families understand symptoms, make informed decisions, and remain engaged over time. Although evidence supports related TBI psychoeducation and rehabilitation approaches, direct evidence for the incremental clinical benefit of NIPE remains limited. Further research is needed to test its proposed mechanisms and delivery models across TBI populations and care settings. Copyright © 2026. Published by Elsevier B.V.