Escitalopram and Language Intervention for Subacute Aphasia

Prior treatment

• Previous neurological disease affecting the brain including previous symptomatic stroke

Other illness

• Diagnosis of schizophrenia, autism, or other psychiatric or neurological condition that affects naming/language
• Use of any medication approved by the FDA for treatment of depression at the time of stroke onset
• Pregnancy at the time of stroke or planning to become pregnant during the study term.

Lab values

• A history of additional risk factors for torsades de pointes (TdP; e.g., heart failure, hypokalemia, family history of Long QT Syndrome)
• Concomitant use of any monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) or pimozide, or other drugs that prolong the QT/QTc interval, triptans (and other 5-Hydroxytryptamine Receptor Agonists), or other contraindications to escitalopram that may be identified.
• A QTc greater than 450 milliseconds on electrocardiogram or evidence of hyponatremia (Na \< 130) at baseline

Other

• Current severe depression, defined as a score of \> 15 on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)
• Uncorrected visual loss or hearing loss by self-report

• Participants must have sustained an acute ischemic left hemisphere stroke.
• Participants must be fluent speakers of English by self-report.
• Participants must be capable of giving informed consent or indicating a legally authorized representative to provide informed consent.
• Participants must be age 18 or older.
• Participants must be within 5 days of onset of stroke.
• Participants must be pre-morbidly right-handed by self-report.
• Participants must have an aphasia diagnosis as confirmed by the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (Aphasia Quotient \< 93.8).