Exercise as an Adjuvant to Aphasia Therapy

VA Office of Research and Development

Status: Completed

Conditions: Aphasia

Treatments: Behavioral: Aerobic exercise; Behavioral: Stretching

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT01113879

C7175-M

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of the study is to reveal if individuals who participate in aerobic activity demonstrate greater improvement in language abilities than patients who do not participate in aerobic activity.

Full description

The objective of this research project is to reveal if individuals who participate in aerobic activity demonstrate greater improvement in language abilities with treatment than patients who do not participate in aerobic activity. As secondary objectives, we will determine if there is a direct relationship between either brain efficiency or increases in Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) after exercise and higher learning rates in aphasia.

Enrollment: 9 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 20 to 95 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Post-stroke aphasia
• at least 6 months post-stroke
• at least minimally intact auditory verbal comprehension
• pre-morbidly right handed
• native English speaker

Exclusion criteria

• contraindications for fMRI (metal implants, claustrophobia)
• inability to pass an exercise tolerance test
• significant depression
• uncorrected hearing or vision problems
• severe apraxia of speech
• regularly perform 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise 3 times per week

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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9 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Aphasia therapy with an exercise adjuvant

Experimental group

Description:

Aphasia therapy for anomia: The treatment is a traditional lexical/semantic stimulation approach during which subjects will attempt to name drawings of objects. Aerobic exercise: An aerobic exercise intervention will target cardiorespiratory fitness by progressing from 50-70% of the participants' maximum heart rate.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Aerobic exercise

Aphasia therapy with a stretching adjuvant

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Aphasia therapy for anomia: The treatment is a traditional lexical/semantic stimulation approach during which subjects will attempt to name drawings of objects. Stretching: Stretching will occur for 50 minutes a day, three days/week for 12 weeks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Stretching