People with aphasia after stroke are at risk of being short-changed with inadequate services, new research has revealed.
The international study, published in the journal Stroke, involved almost 1000 patients across 28 countries.
Results showed that the greatest gains in recovery of language and functional communication were made when rehab was delivered two-to-four times a week.
However, nine or more hours were needed in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of spoken language.
The report also highlighted the importance of practicing rehabilitation tasks at home.
The research was led by Professor Marian Brady of Glasgow Caledonian University’s Stroke Rehabilitation Research Programme.
Professor Brady said that stroke rehabilitation services were stretched even before the pandemic and now patients with aphasia face even greater difficulties in accessing the support.
The expert hopes that the research findings will be fed into new UK stroke rehabilitation guidelines.
Professor Brady said:
“The reason we carried out this study was to improve services for people with aphasia and to have more clarity about the level of therapy that should be delivered in order to maximise recovery across speaking and understanding of speech.
“The most recent UK guidelines were produced in 2016 and were somewhat vague in the amount of therapy recommended for people with aphasia.
“They recommend that people with aphasia should be seen by a speech and language therapist but they don’t say what kinds of therapy should be delivered, for how long or how often each week.
“This new research gives a clear indication of optimum therapy dosage/or prescription for the best language recovery for people with aphasia.”
The study was welcomed by speech and language therapist, Sandra Hewitt, from NHS Highland.
The stroke survivor said that the large-scale systematic review ‘add[s] to the evidence base for speech and language therapy.’
Edinburgh stroke survivor Brian Jackson, 74, added:
“A one-size-fits-all approach does not work, aphasia sufferers are all different and need different strategies, more intense therapy would be better, not just one hour per week.”
