Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2012, Article ID 654604, 9 pages doi:10.1155/2012/654604 Research Article Can Combination Therapy of Conventional and Oriental Medicine Improve Poststroke Aphasia? Comparative, Observational, Pragmatic Study WooSang Jung,1 SeungWon Kwon,1 SeongUk Park,2 and SangKwan Moon1 1 Department of Cardiovascular and Neurologic Diseases, Kyung Hee University Oriental Medicine Hospital, 1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-702, Republic of Korea 2 Department of Cardiovascular and Neurologic Diseases, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Republic of Korea Correspondence should be addressed to SeungWon Kwon, kkokkottung@hanmail.net Received 21 May 2012; Accepted 23 June 2012 Academic Editor: Il-Moo Chang Copyright © 2012 WooSang Jung et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The aim of the present study was to determine the eﬀectiveness of oriental medicine therapy on poststroke aphasia. The outcome was measured as the delta value of the Aphasic Quotient score. Patients completed test at two timepoints: baseline and discharge time. Patients who received conventional therapy and language therapy were grouped in the Only Language Therapy group. Patients who received conventional therapy, language therapy, and an Oriental medicine regimen were grouped in the Combined oriental Medicine Therapy group. We compared the delta value of the Aphasic Quotient score between two groups. The Combined Oriental Medicine group exhibited a greater improvement than the Only Language Therapy group in the total Aphasic Quotient score and most subsection scores. In particular, there were statistically signiﬁcant diﬀerences in total Aphasic Quotient score and subsections such as spontaneous speech, content delivery, comprehension, auditory verbal comprehension, and command performance. Among severe aphasic patients, the improvement of the Combined oriental Medicine group was better than that of the Only Language Therapy group. Through this study, we suggest combination therapy with the administration of oriental medicine and language therapy can be helpful in the treatment of post-stroke aphasic patients. 1. Introduction Approximately 38% of stroke patients suﬀer from aphasia. Among them, 50% have aphasia with long-term disabilities after 6 months [1]. Recovery from aphasia is commonly achieved within 6 months after the onset of stroke. However, post-stroke aphasia can become a permanent deﬁcit after 6 months. Therefore, post-stroke aphasia must be treated eﬀectively within the ﬁrst 6 months after the stroke. Some studies suggest that the duration of an eﬀective aphasia treatment regimen should be 2–6 months [2–7]. Donepezil [8], bromocriptine,amphetamine, and pirac- etam [9, 10] are generally suggested for the treatment of aphasia. However, these drugs are not always prescribed because there is a lack of evidence concerning their overall eﬀect on aphasia. Compared with conventional therapy strategies for the treatment of aphasia, Oriental medicine doctors have used several diﬀerent modalities to treat this disease. Some case reports suggested that herbal complexes such as jihwangeumja [11–13], cheongshinhaeeo-tang [14], seonghyangjeongkisan [13], cheongshindodam-tang [13], and others [15] are eﬀective in the treatment of aphasia. Other reports describe the use of “scalp acupucnture” a form of acupuncture, to heal aphasia [16, 17]. However, these reports were based on case studies. Furthermore, these studies did not include a control group. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect- iveness of oriental medicine (consisting of herbal medicine, acupuncture, and moxibustion) on post-stroke aphasia by comparing the Aphasia Quotient (AQ) scores between a combined Oriental medicine therapy group and a non- Oriental medicine therapy group. Present study was per- formed as a pragmatic method understanding character of Oriental medicine, reﬂecting individuation of patients’ general condition and symptoms.