Donepezil in Chronic Poststroke Aphasia: a Randomized Controlled Trial - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.govAphasia (impairment of language function due to brain damage)may be treated with speech-language therapy and drugs. Several drugs have been studied but with limited success.Recent evidence indicates that medicaments acting on the neurotransmitter acetylcholine may promote improvement of aphasic deficits and our previous open-label study of donepezil in post-stroke aphasia showed benefits in all patients and observed benefit were long-lasting (6 months).This study will test the safety and efficacy of donepezil (an agent acting on acetylcholine)in subjects with stroke-related chronic aphasia (more than 1 yr of evolution).Prior clinical information of donepezil treatment of post-stroke aphasia comes from single-case studies, small case-series and an open-label study. In addition, an extension phase of a small open-label study also suggest that the efficacy of donepezil in chronic post-stroke apahsia is maintained at long-term follow-up. These data collectively suggest that in post-stroke donepezil is effective and well-tolerated with a limited potential for causing clinically significant interactions when prescribed with other medications. However, these results are preliminary and should be judged parsimoniously until randomized controlled trials will be performed.Moreover, recent data by our group also showed that donepezil may improve sensorimotor deficits (hemiparesis)in some patients.