Prognostic indicators and the pattern of recovery of communication in aphasic stroke patients.

Communication abilities were assessed on a wide range of tests in 56 aphasic stroke patients, 33 classified as "moderate" and 23 as "severe". Thirty-six of the patients had received language treatment. The biographical variables of age, months post-onset and handedness were shown to be differentially correlated with improvements. In particular, there were some significant trends of decreasing improvement with increasing months post-onset on expressive verbal tasks in treated moderate aphasics and on comprehension tasks in treated severe aphasics. Untreated patients did not show the same clear pattern of trends; however, these patients were reassessed after a shorter period and covered a smaller range of months post-onset. The role of treatment deserves further clarification. The results also indicate that language recovery is relatively independent of age and of handedness.