Speech and language therapy for dysarthria due to non-progressive brain damage.
BACKGROUND
Dysarthria is a common sequel of non-progressive brain damage (typically stroke and traumatic brain damage). Impairment-based therapy and a wide variety of compensatory management strategies are undertaken by speech and language therapists with this patient population.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the efficacy of speech and language therapy interventions for adults with dysarthria following non-progressive brain damage.


METHODS
We searched the trials registers of the following Cochrane Groups: Stroke, Injuries, Movement Disorders and Infectious Diseases. We also searched the trials register of the Cochrane Rehabilitation and Related Therapies Field. The trials registers were last searched in September 2004. The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library Issue 2, 2004), MEDLINE (1966 to September 2004), EMBASE (1980 to September 2004), CINAHL (1983 to September 2004), PsycINFO (1974 to October 2004), and Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (1983 to December 2004) were searched electronically. We handsearched the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders (1966 to 2005, Issue 1) and selected conference proceedings, and scanned the reference lists of relevant articles. We approached colleagues and speech and language therapy training institutions to identify other possible published and unpublished studies.


METHODS
Unconfounded randomised controlled trials (RCTs).


METHODS
One author assessed trial quality. Two co-authors were available to examine any potential trials for possible inclusion in the review.


RESULTS
No trials of the required standard were identified.


CONCLUSIONS
There is no evidence of the quality required by this review to support or refute the effectiveness of speech and language therapy interventions for dysarthria following non-progressive brain damage. Despite the recent commencement of a RCT of optimised speech and language therapy for communication difficulties after stroke, there continues to be an urgent need for good quality research in this area.
Sellars
C
C
Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Castle Street, Glasgow, UK, G4 0SF. Cameron.Sellars@northglasgow.scot.nhs.uk
Hughes
T
T
Langhorne
P
P
D000328:Adult; D020208:Brain Injury, Chronic / Q000150:complications; D004401:Dysarthria / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007808:Language Therapy; D013070:Speech Therapy; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications