STUDY PROTOCOL article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Experimental Therapeutics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1614868
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancements in Cognitive-Linguistic Rehabilitation of Post-Brain Injury: Mechanisms and StrategiesView all 5 articles
Effectiveness of Acupuncture for Post-stroke Aphasia: Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
- 2Second Affiliated Hospital, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
- 3First Affiliated Hospital of Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Post-stroke aphasia (PSA) is a prevalent and debilitating consequence of stroke, significantly impairing communication abilities and reducing patients' quality of life. While speech and language therapy represents standard care, many patients experience incomplete recovery. Acupuncture, a key component of traditional Chinese medicine, offers a potential complementary approach for enhancing language rehabilitation. This protocol describes a planned systematic review and meta-analysis to synthesize evidence on the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for patients suffering from post-stroke aphasia.Methods and analysis: We will systematically search PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, and China Biology Medicine disc (CBM) from their inception through April 2025. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) including adult patients (age ≥ 18 years) diagnosed with post-stroke aphasia will be eligible. The primary outcomes will be changes in overall language function (e.g., using the Western Aphasia Battery) and functional communication ability (e.g., using the Communicative Effectiveness Index). Secondary outcomes will include a dichotomized overall effective rate (based on predefined improvement thresholds reported in the primary studies), quality of life, and adverse events. Outcomes will be analyzed at two pre-specified time points: immediately post-treatment (within 4 weeks of the final session) to assess short-term efficacy, and at long-term follow-up (≥3 months post-treatment) to assess the durability of effects. The quality of included trials will be evaluated using the Cochrane risk bias measurement tool: Risk of Bias 2 (RoB 2). Meta-analysis will be performed using standard review software (e.g., RevMan). Advanced analyses, including meta-regression to explore sources of heterogeneity, will be conducted using the R statistical environment. If meta-analysis is inappropriate due to extreme heterogeneity, a narrative synthesis will be conducted.Discussion: This study will provide a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis focused on RCTs evaluating acupuncture for post-stroke aphasia. Publishing this protocol ensures transparency and outlines the methodology rigorously to avoid duplication. The results aim to provide clinicians and researchers with consolidated evidence regarding the role of acupuncture in post-stroke aphasia management and may inform future clinical guidelines and research directions.
Keywords: Acupuncture, Post-stroke aphasia, Stroke, Aphasia, Language Disorders, Overview of systematic reviews, Systematic review, Meta-analysis
Received: 22 Apr 2025; Accepted: 16 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jia, Shan, Tang and Tang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qiang Tang, Second Affiliated Hospital, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.