Psychological effects of speech therapy.

The study investigates the effect of speech therapy on the mood of aphasic stroke patients and their spouses. Patients were randomly allocated to receive speech therapy for 24 weeks starting at 10 weeks post stroke. Patient's mood was measured by means of simple rating scales and an adjective checklist. The mood of relatives was measured by The Goldberg General Health Questionnaire and The Wakefield Depression Inventory. Whereas depression and anxiety were surprisingly uncommon in aphasic patients, many spouses suffered depression and minor psychiatric disturbances. There were no significant differences between treated and untreated patients and their spouses on any measure. Speech therapy was not shown to have any psychological benefits.