Letters
Speech therapy after stroke
Money well spent?
BMJ 2012; 345 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e6020 (Published 10 September 2012) Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e6020
- Jim G Thornton, obstetrician gynaecologist1
- jim.thornton{at}nottingham.ac.uk
It is good to see a good quality trial question the effectiveness of speech and language therapy for stroke associated aphasia.1 But it was worryingly expensive. According to the Health Technology Assessment website it cost £1.5m (€1.9m; $2.4m) to recruit 170 participants—nearly £9000 per recruit.
If the NHS stops funding this ineffective treatment it may turn out to be money well spent. But will they? Thirty years ago David and colleagues did the same trial with the same result, but nothing changed.2
Notes
Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e6020
Footnotes
Competing interests: None declared.