Assessing treatment efficacy in acute aphasia: Paradoxes, presumptions, problems and prinicples

Abstract

It is paradoxical that most studies that have examined the efficacy of aphasia rehabilitation have involved patients with stable, chronic aphasia, while most clinicians treat patients whose aphasia is of much shorter duration and often more dynamic. Extending the results of treatment efficacy studies with chronic patients to acute patients requires that two essential presumptions be made : (1) a method that works with chronic patients will in fact work with acute patients; (2) the method is equally appropriate for both chronic and acute patients. These presumptions and problems that may arise when assessing treatment efficacy in acutely aphasic patients are discussed. Principles that may guide future studies are enumerated.