Background. Individuals with post-stroke aphasia often experience a profound loss of abilities to engage in social interaction, one major reason for increased risk of depression after a cerebrovascular accident. Impaired communication skills in aphasia can prevent classical forms of psychotherapy, thus emphasizing the need for new rehabilitation strategies alongside antidepressant medication.
Aims. The present parallel-group, single-center, blinded-assessment controlled trial seeks to explore the feasibility - in terms of high completion rates (primary outcome) - and potential efficacy (co-primary and secondary outcomes, as defined below) of intensive communicative-pragmatic social interaction for treatment of post-stroke depression in subacute aphasia. In this early time window after a cerebrovascular accident, prevalence of post-stroke depression is generally high.
Methods. Treatment is based on a linguistically validated protocol that encourages individuals with aphasia to use neural resources of verbal communication embedded in intensive social interaction. In a routine-healthcare outpatient setting, 60 individuals with post-stroke depression and subacute aphasia will be assigned to one of two groups in a pseudorandomized fashion: (i) intensive communicative-pragmatic social interaction combined with standard care, or (ii) standard care alone.
Endpoints and Outcomes. Apart from evidence of treatment feasibility, endpoint will be change on self-report and clinician-rated measures of depression severity (co-primary outcomes: Beck's Depression Inventory, BDI; and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, HAM-D) after a 1-month treatment period (5 hours of weekly training). Secondary outcomes include measures evaluating self-efficacy, quality of life, and language performance (secondary outcomes: Self-Efficacy Questionnaire; and Aachen Aphasia Test, AAT).
Hypotheses. Aside from evidence of treatment feasibility, the primary hypothesis predicts significant between-group differences on BDI and HAM-D scores, indicating greater reduction in depression severity with intensive communicative-pragmatic social interaction over and above standard care alone. Secondary analyses will focus on the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire as an external criterion to explore the psychometric adequacy of the self-report co-primary outcome, the BDI, and consider progress in language performance from onset to end of treatment on the AAT to account for the potential relationship between change in cognitive-affective distress and verbal expression skills.
Clinical Relevance. The current proof-of-concept trial will investigate the feasibility and potential efficacy of intensive communicative-pragmatic social interaction as a means to promote recovery from post-stroke depression in subacute aphasia. The results obtained will determine the design of a subsequent phase-III randomized controlled trial.
