The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of the treatment for language and calculation disorders and for speech
apraxia in vascular subjects. Only therapeutic methods that could be qualified as neuropsychological were taken into account. For
language disorders, we searched the pertinent literature published from 1950 to August 31, 2007 by means of electronic data banks and we took into consideration the Cochrane review, and papers in Cicerone et al. and Cappa et al. systematic reviews. For
acalculia we examined the literature from 1980 by carrying out research on electronic data banks; for speech
apraxia, studies emerged from a search of PUBMED.
Aphasia therapy has been clearly demonstrated efficacious in groups of subjects if sufficiently prolonged/intensive. Treatment for specific disorders (words and sentences processing, reading, writing) studied in series of single patients, though always efficacious, reaches a lower level of recommendation due to the lack of RCT. Only a few studies tackled the problem of efficacy in case of speech
apraxia and calculation disorders. Results are positive but data are scanty. Efficacy of
aphasia therapy seems well established in group of subjects and well-promising for speech
apraxia and calculation disorders. It is suggested, however, that the term "
aphasia" covers widely different impairments and that RCT are not the best instrument to evaluate efficacy; the importance of chronicity is underlined.