| Abstract: |
The objective of this review is to make treatment techniques published in the literature more easily accessible to clinicians in the field of stable dysarthria. This was achieved by performing a systematic review identifying and describing techniques for the treatment of stable dysarthria which have been the subject of published research. Electronic medical databases Medline, Cinahl and Amed were searched for literature published from 1966 to March 2006 that describe and or evaluate treatment techniques used for stable dysarthria. Of 46 papers found, 23 were included in the systematic review as they included the main concepts of stable dysarthria and treatment/therapy in the abstract. Published dysarthria treatment techniques reviewed are presented according to the parts of the speech system that they address. As the research studies published on stable dysarthria treatment use small numbers of participants and investigate very different treatment techniques, it is not possible to draw conclusions about the efficacy of different techniques. However, the review summarizes different treatment techniques for speech and language therapists to use with stable dysarthria and sign posts them to relevant literature. |
