Clinical Trial: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Aphasia Language Therapy
Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Aphasia Language Therapy
Brief Summary: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of small amounts of electrical current, applied without surgery to the brain, in combination with speech-language treatment, on the language outcome of study subjects with nonfluent aphasia (i.e. difficulty with the comprehension and expression of spoken and written language) following a stroke.
Detailed Summary:
Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the most common cause of disability in the United States. According to the American Stroke Association, the prevalence of stroke in the U.S. is approximately 4.8 million with approximately 700,000 additional strokes occurring annually. Approximately 150,000 to 250,000 stroke survivors becoming severely and permanently disabled each year.
A common neurological deficit among stroke survivors, and thus a substantial contributor to post-stroke disability, is aphasia. The loss of, or difficulty with language is extremely debilitating and has enormous social and economic impact on quality of life. Presently, the only treatment available for persons with aphasia is speech-language rehabilitation.
With rehabilitation only, however, many patients achieve a less than satisfactory improvement in speech-language function, and thus are left with significant disability.
Enhancing stroke recovery by facilitating brain plasticity with the direct application of stimulation to the cerebral cortex is a new area of investigation and shows promise for improving language recovery in stroke-induced aphasia, most probably when it is combined with intense learning. There are several methods of delivering cortical brain stimulation to modulate cortical excitability, each of which have been studied in animal models with promising results, and subsequently applied to the rehabilitation of motor deficits after stroke. Applications to language problems after stroke are only emerging. Nevertheless, results suggest a potential role for cortical stimulation as an adjuvant strategy in aphasia rehabilitation.
Of the cortical stimulation methods available, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has the gre
Sponsor: Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
Current Primary Outcome: Aphasia Quotient (AQ) on the Western Aphasia Battery [ Time Frame: Change from Baseline in Western Aphasia Battery at 6 weeks ]
Original Primary Outcome: Same as current
Current Secondary Outcome:
- Functional communication skills [ Time Frame: Change from Baseline in functional communication skills at 6 weeks ]Scores derived from language sample analyses
- Participation in everyday activities [ Time Frame: Change from Baseline in participation in everyday activities at 6 weeks ]Measures on CETI, BOSS, CCRSA
- Western Aphasia Battery - Reading and Writing scores [ Time Frame: Change from Baseline in Western Aphasia Battery Reading and Writing scores at 6 weeks ]
- Western Aphasia Battery Aphasia Quotient (Maintenance) [ Time Frame: Change in Western Aphasia Battery AQ from 6 weeks to 12 weeks ]
- Western Aphasia Battery Reading and Writing Scores (Maintenance) [ Time Frame: Change in WAB Reading and Writing Skills from 6 weeks to 12 weeks ]
- Functional Communication Skills (Maintenance) [ Time Frame: Communication skills from 6 weeks to 12 weeks ]
- Participation in everyday activities (Maintenance) [ Time Frame: Change in participation in everyday activities from 6 weeks to 12 weeks ]
Original Secondary Outcome: Same as current
Information By: Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
Dates:
Date Received: December 2, 2011
Date Started: March 2010
Date Completion:
Last Updated: May 12, 2017
Last Verified: May 2017
