Escitalopram and Language Therapy for Aphasia After Stroke

Inclusion Criteria: * Participants must have sustained an acute ischemic left hemisphere stroke. * Participants must be fluent speakers of English by self-report. * Participants must be capable of giving informed consent or indicating a legally authorized representative to provide informed consent. * Participants must be age 18 or older. * Participants must be within 5 days of onset of stroke. * Participants must be pre-morbidly right-handed by self-report. * Participants must have an aphasia diagnosis as confirmed by the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (Aphasia Quotient \< 93.8). Exclusion Criteria: * Previous neurological disease affecting the brain including previous symptomatic stroke * Diagnosis of schizophrenia, autism, or other psychiatric or neurological condition that affects naming/language * A history of additional risk factors for torsades de pointes (TdP; e.g., heart failure, hypokalemia, family history of Long QT Syndrome) * Current severe depression, defined as a score of \> 15 on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) * Uncorrected visual loss or hearing loss by self-report * Use of any medication approved by the FDA for treatment of depression at the time of stroke onset * Concomitant use of any monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) or pimozide, or other drugs that prolong the QT/QTc interval, triptans (and other 5-Hydroxytryptamine Receptor Agonists), or other contraindications to escitalopram that may be identified. * A QTc greater than 450 milliseconds on electrocardiogram or evidence of hyponatremia (Na \< 130) at baseline * Pregnancy at the time of stroke or planning to become pregnant during the study term.