People with aphasia make significant improvements thanks to intensive programme at UCLH

People with the acquired communication disorder aphasia – which involves problems with the understanding or production of speech –have benefitted greatly from a two-year programme of therapy at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at UCLH. 

Ninety people with speech and language difficulties following stroke, traumatic brain injury or brain tumours made statistically significant progress in speaking, listening, reading and writing thanks to the Queen Square Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Programme (ICAP). 

They also made large gains in their language function as judged by their friends and family, and reported improvements in their own language skills and improved mood, with some being able to return to work. 

ICAP involved a high dose of 100 hours of speech and language therapy – compared to the average 12 hours patients typically receive. The programme, funded by The National Brain Appeal, involved therapy for 4 weeks at the NHNN followed by independent exercises at home. The results of the two-year programme are published online in the journal Aphasiology. 

The co-founders of ICAP – UCL professors Alex Leff and Jenny Crinion – and the clinical psychology and speech and language therapy team now hope a form of the programme could be used more widely in the NHS in future.  

Alex Leff, UCL professor of cognitive neurology and UCLH consultant neurologist, said: “Imagine the chaos if a major train hub such as Kings Cross is out of action – a similar process is happening in the brain.

Patients may know what they want to say but they can’t grab the words, the network is broken and all areas of language – reading, writing, speech and understanding speech – are damaged. The ICAP programme helps patients re-learn language and join up these blocked routes.” 

Jenny Crinion, UCL professor of cognitive neuroscience and UCLH consultant speech and language therapist, said the team were able to prove what a huge impact a high dose of speech and language therapy can have: “Being once again able to do things many of us take for granted, such as being able to read a bedtime story to their kids, having a chat on the phone or ordering a coffee in a cafe has made a big impact on the lives of the people with aphasia that took part.”