The efficacy of the impairment-based treatment

This chapter reviews studies on efficacy of aphasia therapy regrouped according to how the problem was dealt with: studies on spontaneous recovery from aphasia, on recovery in treated chronic aphasic patients, studies comparing treated and untreated groups of patients, and studies comparing patients treated by speech terapists and volounteers. Results of these studies are conflicting and do not allow any firm conclusion about aphasia therapy efficacy, but they strongly suggest that long-lasting treatments are efficacious. Results of studies on the effect of duration and intensity of treatment are reported; they clearly indicate that lenght significantly affects recovery. In the last 10 years meta-analyses have repeatedly been applied to aphasia therapy studies. They confirm the efficacy of aphasia therapy. In the last part of the paper, studies on long-term outcome of aphasia are reviewed.