title: How intensive does anomia therapy for people with aphasia need to be?
abstract: The intensity of aphasia therapy has been a key clinical question. The aim of this case-series study was to compare the outcome of intensive and non-intensive therapy in the relearning of words for people with aphasia. Eight participants took part in a study comparing the intensity of delivery of the therapy. Participants received two courses of the same therapy (each lasting 10 sessions) delivered either intensively or non-intensively. Therapy consisted of confrontation naming with progressive phonemic and orthographic cues. Post-therapy assessments were carried out immediately after the study and one month later. Performance was also monitored during each therapy session. Immediately post-therapy, both types of therapy had improved naming accuracy considerably and there was no significant difference between the two interventions. One month later, seven out of eight participants showed a small yet significant difference in naming accuracy, favouring non-intensive over intense therapy. There were no differences in the learning patterns during the therapy sessions between the intensive and non-intensive therapies. For the majority of people with aphasia post-stroke, both intense and non-intense therapy for anomia leads to improved naming performance. Retention at one-month post therapy is relatively superior after non-intensive therapy.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Aphasia Research Unit (NARU), School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, UK. karen.sage@manchester.ac.uk
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sage
authors.forename: Claerwen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Snell
authors.forename: Matthew A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lambon Ralph
mesh_terms: D000849:Anomia / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007808:Language Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation