This book provides clinicians and researchers with the current state-of-the-art on the pharmacological treatment of aphasia. The focus is on the role of different pharmacological agents to improve aphasia associated with stroke and to attenuate language dissolution in degenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and primary progressive aphasia. This book is the first one that addresses these topics. Leaders in the field provide tutorial reviews on how focal brain injury and degeneration impact on the normal the activity of different neurotransmitter systems and how drugs combined or not with rehabilitation can improve language and communication deficits. This is nicely illustrated by studies on single cases and case series describing the beneficial effects of interventions combining drugs with evidence-based rehabilitation techniques. Throughout the volume, future directions to refine testing aimed to detect gains in language and non-language cognitive deficits promoted by drug treatment are highlighted. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the rehabilitation of aphasia and related cognitive disorders.
This book was originally published as a special issue of Aphasiology.
1. Cognitive enhancing drugs in aphasia: A vote for hope Marcelo L. Berthier 2. Psycholinguistics of aphasia pharmacotherapy: Asking the right questions Dalia Cahana-Amitay, Martin L. Albert, and Abigail Oveis 3. Dopaminergic therapy in aphasia Sumanjit K. Gill and Alexander P. Leff 4. A clinical study of the combined use of bromocriptine and speech and language therapy in the treatment of a person with aphasia Mandy A. Galling, Neetish Goorah, Marcelo L. Berthier, and Karen Sage 5. Massed sentence repetition training can augment and speed up recovery of speech production deficits in patients with chronic conduction aphasia receiving donepezil treatment Marcelo L. Berthier, Guadalupe Dávila, Cristina Green-Heredia, Ignacio Moreno Torres, Rocío Juárez y Ruiz de Mier, Irene De-Torres, and Rafael Ruiz-Cruces 6. Neuroplasticity, neurotransmitters and new directions for treatment of anomia in Alzheimer disease Adam D. Falchook, Kenneth M. Heilman, Glen R. Finney, Leslie J. Gonzalez-Rothi, and Stephen E. Nadeau 7. Effects of memantine treatment on language abilities and functional communication: A review of data Michael Tocco, Kathryn Bayles, Oscar L. Lopez, Robert K. Hofbauer, Vojislav Pejović, Michael L. Miller, and Judith Saxton
Biography
Marcelo L. Berthier is a member of the Unidad de Neurología Cognitiva y Afasia of the Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias at the University of Malaga, Spain, and is interested in using different strategies to treat aphasia. Most of his current work concerns the treatment of post-stroke aphasia combining intensive rehabilitation with drugs.
Guadalupe Dávila is a member of the Unidad de Neurología Cognitiva y Afasia of the Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias at the University of Malaga, Spain and is interested in using different strategies to treat aphasia. Most of his current work concerns the treatment of post-stroke aphasia combining intensive rehabilitation with drugs.
