Spouse adjustment to stroke: Aphasic versus nonaphasic partners

Abstract A survey of spouses of stroke patients examined the impact of stroke with and without aphasia on spouse role change, emotional problems, social adjustment, and the partner's perceived communication abilities. The results of this study support earlier findings that stroke with aphasia has a greater negative impact on the patient's spouse than does stroke without aphasia. For the spouses of aphasic patients sampled in this study, role changes represented the major adjustment made to a partner's stroke. These adjustments were greater than those experienced by the spouses of nonaphasic patients. The inability of aphasic patients to communicate well with their spouses served to make necessary role adjustments more difficult. Both spouse groups were affected to some degree by the communication problems associated with stroke, with the spouses of aphasic partners being affected the most.