Computerized Training in Poststroke Aphasia: What About the Long-Term Effects? A Randomized Clinical Trial

BACKGROUND: Poststroke aphasia is a very disabling disorder, which may affect speech expression, comprehension, and reading or writing. Treatment of aphasia should be initiated as soon as possible after the brain injury; however, the improvement of language functions can occur also in the chronic phase.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-two patients were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (17 patients) treated with computerized rehabilitation training (Power-Afa, Maddaloni, Campania, Italy) or a control group (15 patients), submitted to conventional speech therapy. Patients were trained 3 times a week for 8 weeks, (i.e., 24 sessions of 45 minutes each), and assessed at baseline (T0), at the end of each training (T1), and 3 months after the end of the treatment (T2).

RESULTS: The experimental group had a significant improvement from T0 to T1 in all the outcomes, whereas for the control group patients such an improvement was significant only concerning Functional Independence Measure and ideomotor praxis. Notably, the improvements in cognitive and language functions were maintained at 3-month follow-up only in the experimental group.

CONCLUSIONS: The software Power-Afa can be considered a valuable tool in improving the linguistic and cognitive recovery in patients affected by poststroke aphasia in the chronic phase. Further studies with larger samples and longer follow-up periods are needed to confirm such promising findings.