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Objectives: This study aimed to systematically evaluate the effects of constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT) for aphasic patients reported by randomized controlled trials. Methods: Relevant randomized controlled trials were retrieved from 11 electronic databases. A methodological quality assessment was conducted in accordance with the Cochrane Handbook, and meta-analyses were performed by using RevMan 5.2. A descriptive analysis was conducted when the included trials were not suitable for a meta-analysis. Results: A total of 12 trials were included. A statistically significant group difference was shown from the meta-analysis in the results measured by the Western Aphasia Battery (random-effects model, MD = 1.23, 95% CI = 0.31 to 2.14, P 0.05) and Aachen Aphasia Test (fixed-effects model, MD = −1.11, 95% CI = −4.49 to 2.27, P > 0.05). The descriptive analysis showed positive results in language performances of naming, repetition, and comprehension. Conclusion: This systematic review indicated that CIAT was efficient for improving language performance with regard to naming, comprehension, repetition, written language, and oral language based on the current evidence. And this review provides some meaningful guides for clinical practice: expand the therapy duration to 2 or 3 h per day, focus on naming, and choose the best assessment tool. It also indicates a need for more rigorous, large-scale, and high-quality trials in the future.

Aphasia is prevalent in people following stroke, which can have a significant impact on the quality of life of the patients with stroke. One of the new methods for treatment of patients with aphasia is constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT). The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of CIAT on naming deficits in individuals with chronic aphasia. This study had a prospective, single-subject study with A-B-A design. The CIAT was administered to two patients with chronic aphasia. Participants were a 57-year-old male and a 45-year-old female and had a stroke 60 and 36 months ago, respectively. In this study, the naming test was used as the outcome measure. The naming test was administered in three baseline sessions with 1 week interval between tests (phase A). Patients received CIAT for four consecutive weeks (3 days/week). Four measurements were taken during the treatment phase (phase B). In follow-up phase (phase A) two other measurements were performed. Visual analysis consisting of level, regression line, and variability were used to determine the effects of CIAT on naming. Both participants increased scores on naming test after phase A and B. The mean of the naming score improved from the baseline to the intervention phase in both participants. There was a positive trend in naming scores during the treatment phase compared with the trend in the baseline demonstrated by both participants. The results of this study showed that the CIAT can be effective in improving the naming deficit in patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia.

The role of the two hemispheres in the neurorehabilitation of language is still under dispute. This study explored the changes in language-evoked brain activation over a two-week treatment interval with intensive constraint induced aphasia therapy (CIAT), which is also called intensive language action therapy (ILAT). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess brain activation in perilesional left hemispheric and in homotopic right hemispheric areas during passive listening to high and low-ambiguity sentences and non-speech control stimuli in chronic non-fluent aphasia patients. All patients demonstrated significant clinical improvements of language functions after therapy. In an event-related fMRI experiment, a significant increase of BOLD signals was manifest in right inferior frontal and temporal areas. This activation increase was stronger for highly ambiguous sentences than for unambiguous ones. These results suggest that the known language improvements brought about by intensive constraint-induced language action therapy at least in part relies on circuits within the right-hemispheric homologues of left-perisylvian language areas, which are most strongly activated in the processing of semantically complex language.

The authors comment on the contribution of formulaic expressions to seminal approaches in recovery from speech and language disorders after stroke. They discuss music-based rehabilitation programs for these patients, communicative-pragmatic rehabilitation programs for aphasia patients, and the impact of these programs on the patient's motivation, well-being and quality of life.

The role of the two hemispheres in the neurorehabilitation of language is still under dispute. This study explored the changes in language-evoked brain activation over a 2-week treatment interval with intensive constraint induced aphasia therapy (CIAT), which is also called intensive language action therapy (ILAT). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess brain activation in perilesional left hemispheric and in homotopic right hemispheric areas during passive listening to high and low-ambiguity sentences and non-speech control stimuli in chronic non-fluent aphasia patients. All patients demonstrated significant clinical improvements of language functions after therapy. In an event-related fMRI experiment, a significant increase of BOLD signal was manifest in right inferior frontal and temporal areas. This activation increase was stronger for highly ambiguous sentences than for unambiguous ones. These results suggest that the known language improvements brought about by intensive constraint-induced language action therapy at least in part relies on circuits within the right-hemispheric homologs of left-perisylvian language areas, which are most strongly activated in the processing of semantically complex language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aphasia is prevalent in people following stroke, which can have a significant impact on the quality of life of the patients with stroke. One of the new methods for treatment of patients with aphasia is constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT). The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of CIAT on naming deficits in individuals with chronic aphasia. This study had a prospective, single-subject study with A-B-A design. The CIAT was administered to two patients with chronic aphasia. Participants were a 57-year-old male and a 45-year-old female and had a stroke 60 and 36 months ago, respectively. In this study, the naming test was used as the outcome measure. The naming test was administered in three baseline sessions with 1 week interval between tests (phase A). Patients received CIAT for four consecutive weeks (3 days/week). Four measurements were taken during the treatment phase (phase B). In follow-up phase (phase A) two other measurements were performed. Visual analysis consisting of level, regression line, and variability were used to determine the effects of CIAT on naming. Both participants increased scores on naming test after phase A and B. The mean of the naming score improved from the baseline to the intervention phase in both participants. There was a positive trend in naming scores during the treatment phase compared with the trend in the baseline demonstrated by both participants. The results of this study showed that the CIAT can be effective in improving the naming deficit in patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to systematically evaluate the effects of constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT) for aphasic patients reported by randomized controlled trials., Methods: Relevant randomized controlled trials were retrieved from 11 electronic databases. A methodological quality assessment was conducted in accordance with the Cochrane Handbook, and meta-analyses were performed by using RevMan 5.2. A descriptive analysis was conducted when the included trials were not suitable for a meta-analysis., Results: A total of 12 trials were included. A statistically significant group difference was shown from the meta-analysis in the results measured by the Western Aphasia Battery (random-effects model, MD  = 1.23, 95% CI = 0.31 to 2.14, P  < 0.01). However, there were no statistically significant differences shown in the results of the Boston Naming Test (fixed-effects model, MD  = -1.79, 95% CI = -11.19 to 7.62, P  > 0.05) and Aachen Aphasia Test (fixed-effects model, MD  = -1.11, 95% CI = -4.49 to 2.27, P  > 0.05). The descriptive analysis showed positive results in language performances of naming, repetition, and comprehension., Conclusion: This systematic review indicated that CIAT was efficient for improving language performance with regard to naming, comprehension, repetition, written language, and oral language based on the current evidence. And this review provides some meaningful guides for clinical practice: expand the therapy duration to 2 or 3 h per day, focus on naming, and choose the best assessment tool. It also indicates a need for more rigorous, large-scale, and high-quality trials in the future., Competing Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© 2020 The authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of the Chinese Nursing Association.)

Introduction/Background Constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT) has been widely applied as post-stroke aphasia rehabilitation to encourage intensive verbal practice with supported verbal cuing instead of previous habitual compensatory strategies (Pulvermuller et al., 2001). However, this therapy has not yet been reported in Japan; thus, we applied intensive CIAT training to three of our patients with chronic aphasia. Participants Patient 1: aged 72 years, female, three years after onset of Broca aphasia. Patient 2: aged 67 years, male, two years after onset of transcortical aphasia. Patient 3: aged 52 years, female, two years after onset of anomia. Methods The CIAT-II protocol (Johnson et al., 2015) was modified as the Japanese version, which consisted of intensive training using five expressive language exercises and methods of Shaping and Transfer Package for 5 × 3-h weekly sessions for 3 weeks. The Japanese version of the Aphasia Quotient (AQ) in the Western aphasia battery and the Amount Scale (AS) of the Verbal Activity Log (VAL) were also modified to assess aphasia before and after the protocol. Results The AS improved from 2.7 to 4.6, from 1.4 to 2.8, and from 2.2 to 3.8 in patients 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The AQ did not greatly change in any patient (from 70.8 to 72, from 70 to 73.1, and from 85.9 to 93.7, respectively). Conclusion The results indicated that the CIAT could improve aphasia assessed by the AS, which was consistent with previous study of CIAT (Johnson et al., 2015) and constraint-induced movement therapy (Taub et al., 2013). The Japanese version of CIAT might be effective as speech therapy for Japanese patients with chronic aphasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]