Aphasia

Description

Aphasia is a disorder that affects the way people communicate. It can affect speech, as well as the way you write and understand language, both written and oral.

Aphasia usually occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head injury. But you can also come on gradually from a slow-growing brain tumor or a disease that causes progressive, permanent damage (degenerative). The severity of aphasia depends on a number of things, including the cause and the extent of the brain damage.

The main treatment for aphasia is the treatment of the disease that produces it, as well as speech and language therapy. The person with aphasia relearns and practice of language skills and learn how to use other ways to communicate. Family members are often involved in the process, helping the person to communicate.

Symptoms

Aphasia is a symptom of some other disease, such as a stroke or a brain tumor.

A person with aphasia may:

  • Speaking short or incomplete sentences
  • Talk with phrases that have no meaning
  • Replace one word for another or one sound for another
  • Speaking unrecognizable words
  • Struggling to find the words
  • Don't understand other people in the conversation
  • Do not understand what they read
  • Write phrases that have no meaning

The patterns of aphasia

People with aphasia may have different strengths and weaknesses in their speech patterns. Sometimes these patterns are labeled as different types of aphasia, including:

  • Broca's aphasia
  • Aphasia Wernicke
  • Aphasia Transcortical
  • Aphasia conduction
  • Aphasia mixed
  • Global Aphasia

These patterns describe how well the person can understand what others say. They also describe how it is easy for the person to speak or to repeat correctly what anyone says.

Aphasia can develop slowly over time. When that happens, the aphasia may be labeled with one of these names:

  • Logopenic aphasia
  • Aphasia semantic
  • Agrammatism

Many people with aphasia have patterns of difficulty in speech that do not match with these guys. This may help to consider the possibility that each person with aphasia has specific symptoms, strengths and weaknesses instead of trying to label a certain type of aphasia.

When to see a doctor

Because aphasia is often a sign of a serious problem, such as a stroke, seek emergency medical attention if you or a loved one suddenly develop:

  • Difficulty speaking
  • Difficulty in understanding the language
  • The difficulty with the word remember
  • Problems with reading or writing

Causes

The most common cause of aphasia is the brain damage resulting from a stroke — blockage or rupture of a blood vessel in the brain. Loss of blood in the brain leads to brain cell death or damage in areas that control language.

The brain damage caused by a severe head injury, a tumor, an infection or a degenerative process can also cause aphasia. In these cases, aphasia is often the case with other types of cognitive problems, such as memory problems or confusion.

Primary progressive aphasia is the term that is used for the difficulty with the language that develops gradually. This is due to the progressive degeneration of brain cells located in the language of the networks. Sometimes this type of aphasia will be the progress of a more generalized dementia.

Sometimes temporary episodes of aphasia can occur. These may be due to migraines, seizures, or transient ischemic attack (TIA). A transient ischemic attack (TIA) occurs when blood flow is temporarily blocked to an area of the brain. People who have had a TIA are at increased risk of having a stroke in the near future.

Complications

Aphasia can create numerous quality of life issues, since communication is such an important part of your life. Difficulty of communication can affect:

  • Work
  • Relationships
  • Day-to-day function

Difficulty in expressing needs and desires, can result in shame, frustration, isolation, and depression. Other problems may occur together, such as more difficulty moving around, and problems with memory and thinking.

Aphasia

Diagnosis

Your doctor will likely give you a physical and neurological exams, test your strength, feeling and reflexes, and listen to your heart and the blood vessels in the neck. An imaging test, usually a Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computerized tomography (CT scan), can be used to quickly identify what is the cause of the aphasia.

A speech-language pathologist can be a complete language assessment to confirm the presence of aphasia and to determine the appropriate course of language processing. The assessment helps to find out if the person can:

  • Name of common objects
  • Participate in a conversation
  • Understand and use words correctly
  • Answer questions about something read or heard
  • Repetition of words and phrases
  • Follow the instructions
  • Answer yes-no questions and respond to open-ended questions about common topics
  • Read and write

Treatment

If the brain damage is slight, it is possible to recover language skills without treatment. However, most of the people undergo speech and language therapy for the rehabilitation of your language skills and complement their communication experiences. Researchers are investigating the use of drugs, alone or in combination with speech therapy, to help people with aphasia.

Speech and language rehabilitation

The recovery of language skills is usually a slow process. Although the majority of people make significant progress, few people regain the full pre-injury levels of communication.

Speech and language therapy aims to improve the ability to communicate. The therapy helps to restore as much of the language as possible, teaching you how to do by the loss of language skills and the search for other methods of communication.

Therapy:

  • Start early. Some studies have found that the therapy is most effective when it is initiated soon after the injury in the brain.
  • Often work in groups. In a group setting, people with aphasia can test your communication skills in a safe environment. Participants can practice starting conversations, speaking to his time, to clarify the confusion and the setting of the conversations that have completely broken.
  • May include the use of computers. Using computer-assisted therapy can be especially useful to re-learn the verbs of the word, and sounds (phonemes).

Drugs

Certain drugs are being studied for the treatment of aphasia. These include drugs that can improve the flow of blood to the brain, improving the brains of the capacity of recovery or help replace depleted chemicals in the brain (neurotransmitters). Several drugs, such as memantine (Namenda), donepezil (Aricept, Adlarity), galantamine (Razadyne ER) and piracetam, have shown promise in small studies. But more research is needed before these treatments can be recommended.

Other treatments

Brain stimulation is being studied for the treatment of aphasia and can help to improve the ability to name things. But not long-term research has been done yet. A treatment called transcranial magnetic stimulation, and the other is the transcranial direct current stimulation.

These treatments aim to stimulate damaged cells of the brain. Both are non-invasive. One uses magnetic fields and the other uses a low current through electrodes placed on the head.

Coping and support

People with aphasia

If you have aphasia, the following tips can help you to communicate with others:

  • Carry a card explaining that the aphasia and what aphasia is.
  • To perform the identification and the information about how to communicate with the significant other.
  • Bring a pencil and a small pad of paper with you at all times.
  • The use of drawings, diagrams, or photographs as shortcuts.
  • The use of gestures, or pointing out objects.

Family and friends

Family members and friends can use the following tips when communicating with a person with aphasia:

  • Simplify your prayers and slow your pace.
  • Keep conversations in a one-to-one initially.
  • Allow the person time to respond.
  • Do not finish the sentences, or to correct the mistakes, despite the fact that it is okay to ask questions if you're not sure about the intended meaning. For example, you might ask, "are you saying that you want some juice?"
  • Reduce the annoying noise in the environment.
  • Keep paper and pencils or pens available.
  • Enter a key word or a short phrase to help explain something.
  • Help the person with aphasia to create a book of words, images, and pictures to help with the conversations.
  • The use of drawings, or gestures when you don't understand.
  • Involve the person with aphasia in conversations as much as possible.
  • Verification of the understanding, or a summary of what we discussed.

Support groups

The local chapters of organizations such as the National Aphasia Association, the American Stroke Association, the American Heart Association and some medical centers may offer support groups for people with aphasia and other people affected by the disorder. These groups provide people with a sense of community and a place to air frustrations and learn coping strategies. Ask your health care provider or speech-language pathologist about local support groups.

Preparing for your appointment

If the aphasia is due to a stroke or head injury, it is likely that the first to be seen in an emergency room.. then you'll be able to see a doctor who specializes in disorders of the nervous system (neurologist), and eventually may be referred to a speech-language pathologist for rehabilitation.

Because this condition usually arises as an emergency, you will not have time to prepare. If possible, bring your medications or supplements that you take with you to the hospital so your health care team is aware of them.

When you have follow-up appointments, you will probably need someone to take you there. In addition, this person may be able to help you communicate with your health care provider.

Some of the questions from a loved one or a friend you can ask your supplier to include:

  • What is the most likely cause of these difficulties in speaking?
  • Are tests needed?
  • Is aphasia temporary or long-term?
  • What treatments are available for aphasia, and I recommend?
  • There are services available, such as speech and language therapy or home health assistance?
  • There are ways to help my loved one, understand others, or communicate more effectively?

What to expect from your doctor

Your health care provider probably has questions, too. A loved one or a friend can help your provider to get the necessary information. Your provider may ask:

  • When did the symptoms begin?
  • Do you understand what other people are saying?
  • Do others understand what you're saying?
  • Have aphasia been continuous, or does it come and go?
  • Have you noticed changes in his speech — like the way you move your jaw, tongue and lips to make sounds of speech — or the sound of your voice?
  • Have you noticed changes in your ability to understand what they read, or your ability to spell and write sentences?
Symptoms and treatment of Aphasia