The Effect of Venlafaxine on Language Function in Patients With Subcortical Aphasia: A fMRI Study

Previous studies have demonstrated that venlafaxine significantly improves the language function of healthy subjects and increase of fMRI activation in cortical language area. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between venlafaxine on the cortical language functional reorganization and clinical language improvements in the stroke patients with subcortical aphasia. It is a randomized, controlled, single-blind, longitudinal trial which has approved by the ethics committee of Guangzhou General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command, and all patients and their guardian should sign an informed consent. The patients will divide into the venlafaxine group and the control group according to the principle of randomization (random number table). The patients in the venlafaxine group begin to take a venlafaxine hydrochloride capsule after enrollment ( each containing venlafaxine 75mg), qd, until 4 weeks after randomization, and the control group do not. Assessments of language functional behavior and examines of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) should be performed on the first days (V1), 28±3 days (V2) and 90±3 days (V3) after randomization. Through all this procession, we expect improve the language function of participants in experiment and clarify its mechanism,the research may help develop a new treatment for other patients with similar conditions.