Memantine and Intensive Speech-Language Therapy in Aphasia
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2007-11-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
- Aphasia, the loss or impairment of language caused by brain damage, is one of the most
devastating cognitive impairments of stroke. Aphasia can be treated with combination of
speech-language therapy and drugs. Conventional speech-language therapy in chronic
aphasic subjects is of little help and several drugs have been studied with limited
success. Therefore other therapeutic strategies are warranted.
- Recent data suggest that drugs (memantine) acting on the brain chemical glutamate may
help the recovery of cognitive deficits, included language, in subjects with vascular
dementia. The present study examines the safety profile and efficacy of memantine paired
with intensive language therapy in subjects with stroke-related chronic aphasia (more
than 1 yr. of evolution).