Poeck 1993.

Methods	Double blind randomised parallel‐group study. No details of the randomisation process are available in the report.
Participants	Setting was the RWTH‐Aachen Hospital in Germany. Participants were 30 people with chronic aphasia of cerebrovascular origin and of at least 6 weeks duration. Inclusion criteria: In‐patients Right handed Pre‐stroke speakers of German as a native language Exclusion criteria: Rcent myocardial infarction Severe cardiac insufficiency Severe hypertension Carcinoma Severe renal insufficiency Serious diabetes mellitus Certain concomitant medications At baseline both groups were comparable for age and severity of the stroke, and distribution of their Aachen Aphasia Test scores (AAT, Huber 1984). This was a pilot study for a later study.
Interventions	Piracetam 4.8 gram per day plus intensive speech therapy compared to placebo plus intensive speech therapy. The study ran for 6 weeks.
Outcomes	Performance on Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT, Huber 1984) before and after 6 weeks of treatment. There are no results available for the pilot study. Authors report that those receiving piracetam plus speech therapy scored higher on 'profile height' (i.e. weighted sum score of different sub‐tests of AAT), than those receiving speech therapy alone, when results from those in both the pilot and the later study were analysed together. However, some of those in the later study had aphasia of an origin other than stroke, and these people are not eligible for consideration by this review.
Notes	No details of the characteristics of the placebo are available in the report.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Allocation concealment?	Unclear risk	B ‐ Unclear