Discursive, lexical-semantic, pragmatic-inferential and/or prosodic communication processing may be impaired following a cerebrovascular accident. These deficits require intervention methods and programmes for effective communication rehabilitation. Within this context, the aim of this systematic review was to identify and describe methods used for neuropsychological rehabilitation of the communication of adults after a stroke, more specifically, systematic intervention approaches for each communication processing. Abstracts published in the last ten years were selected in PubMed, using keywords related to rehabilitation, stroke and communication. For the communication topic, we also used specific keywords related to the four communication processing components. Initially, 914 abstracts were found; after exclusion of the repeated studies, 460 were analyzed. Full texts were examined if the abstract evidenced that the study was empirical, included at least one post-stroke patient, focused in communication rehabilitation, presented pre- and post-intervention assessments, and if it was published in English, French or Portuguese within the last ten years. Only four empirical studies accomplished such criteria, being conducted mainly with aphasic or aprosodic patients. These findings might be considered surprising and alarming, since there is a lack of systematic studies about rehabilitation of communication components. It is important to highlight the need to search for a detailed description of intervention procedures with specific goals, allowing studies to be replicated and also contributing for monitoring the effects of treatment. Communicative processing intervention programmes should be developed based on theoretical approaches, and studies with this focus should be conducted and published, in order to verify therapeutic effects.
Communication disorders; Language therapy; Rehabilitation of speech and language disorders; Language therapy; Neuropsychology; Stroke
