• Katerina Aravantinou-Fatorou and George Fotakopoulos.
• First Department of Medicine, Laiko General Hospital, Athens, Greece.
• Ir J Med Sci. 2021 May 1; 190 (2): 771-778.

BackgroundThe current study aims to evaluate the effects of daily traditional experiential music listening for clinical recovery of post-stroke aphasia.MethodsThis was a prospective randomized trial with seventy-nine stroke survivors who suffered from post-stroke aphasia. All patients underwent a neuropsychological evaluation, at time = 0 during the admission at the rehabilitation structure (baseline), and 6 months post-stroke. All cases received standard treatment for stroke and post-stroke aphasia in terms of medical care and rehabilitation. Furthermore, patients were randomized to receive either standard care only or standard care with daily traditional experiential music listening. Computer tomography perfusion and neurological examination were assessed to all patients. Recovery was measured by the score at Aachener Aphasie Test.ResultsThe statistically significant differences between the control group (CG) and the rest of the patients were the clinical characteristics (hemiparesis) (p = 0.002), the cerebral blood flow in affected areas (p = 0.000), and the Mini-Mental Test (mMT) (p = 0.000). Only group and mMT were independent predictor factors for recovery, according to multivariate analysis odd ratio (ΟR) (95% confidence interval) 0.022 (0.009-0.435) and 0.658 (0.142-0.224) respectively.ConclusionsThe results of this study are promising and suggest that an enriched sound environment is beneficial for patients with post-stroke aphasia since the recovery rate is higher when standard care was combined with daily music listening.

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