Abstract
Abstract Little is known about the long term recovery or stability of aphasia following brain injury. Thirty-five male stroke patients were studied repeatedly from 3 to 55 months post-onset with the Porch Index of Communicative Ability (PICA) in order to follow improvement in each of five previously extracted factors (speaking, writing, comprehension, gesturing, and copying) across the five-year span. Patients were grouped into one of four categories based on a previous analysis of 118 patients. PICA overall score increased over the first year, became asymptotic in the second year, and either remained level or declined in the third and fourth years post-onset. Language factors showed differential changes with the greatest improvement in speaking. Different categories of patients showed different patterns of change over time. Ten patients had greater than an 11% PICA overall decline beyond the second year. They were among those with the mildest aphasias. Reasons for decline included: change in health statu...
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