What is aphasia? What is the cause, diagnosis and treatment?

In early 2022, actor Bruce Willis, 67, announced his retirement, saying goodbye to his film and television career after being diagnosed with aphasia. This condition severely affected his cognitive abilities. So what is aphasia and how does it impair the ability of people with it to communicate?

Aphasia is a communication disorder that affects someone's ability to speak or understand speech. It affects how they understand written words and their ability to read and write. It is important to note that aphasia can manifest in many different forms. Some people with aphasia only have difficulty understanding language as a result of damage to the temporal lobe, which governs how sound and language are processed in the brain. Others have difficulty speaking only - showing damage to the frontal lobe. The loss of speech and language understanding represents the worst combination: lesions in both the great temporal lobes and the frontal lobes.

Almost everyone with aphasia has difficulty trying to name things they know, resulting in difficulty using words in sentences. It also affects the reading and writing ability of people with this condition.

Brain tumors can also lead to aphasia.

In most cases, aphasia is the result of a stroke or brain hemorrhage. It can also be caused by brain damage from impact trauma, such as a car accident. Brain tumors can also lead to aphasia.

There is also a separate form of this condition called "primary progressive aphasia". This usually starts with mild symptoms but gets worse over time. The medical community is inconclusive about the cause of primary progressive aphasia. However, it affects the same brain regions as in the case of aphasia due to stroke or hemorrhage, but the onset of symptoms follows a different trajectory.

Aphasia is a fairly common disease today. About a third of stroke survivors have this condition. In the US alone, about 2 million people are suffering from aphasia, and an additional 225,000 Americans are diagnosed each year.

There was no gender difference in people with aphasia. However, people with a higher risk of stroke are at greater risk, belonging to the group of people with cardiovascular defects and diabetes.

Aphasia can occur at any age; however, it usually affects people over the age of 65 simply because they have a higher risk of stroke. However, it is not excluded that young people and infants can also develop this condition.

When someone unfortunately becomes aphasia after a stroke or brain hemorrhage, the diagnosis is made by a neurologist. In these cases, the patient will present with a sudden onset of the disorder - their ability to speak or communicate will be greatly reduced.

 
Aphasia can occur at any age.

With primary progressive aphasia, the diagnosis is more difficult. The illness will be mild at first, but the patient will slowly forget the names of people or objects, then gradually find it difficult to understand what others are saying. These changes will help enable more accurate diagnoses.

People who have aphasia from a stroke or hemorrhage will recover over time. How quickly and how much depends on the extent of the brain damage, and the treatment they receive. Primary progressive aphasia is a degenerative disease that worsens over time, although the rate of decline may slow.

The good news is that aphasia is treatable. In the non-progressive form, consistent therapy will help restore speech and understanding. Patients will be treated by practicing with one-on-one repetition exercises, helping them gradually regain their voice. However, patience is required as the road can be long and it depends on the extent of the brain damage

In primary progressive aphasia, symptoms of speech and language impairment get worse over time. However, rehabilitation therapies can help stroke survivors regain the ability to speak and understand language and can slow symptoms in cases of primary progressive aphasia. .

Currently, researchers are clinical trials of a number of therapeutic drugs, but in the early stages, the results have not been satisfactory. Currently, speech rehabilitation therapy is the most common treatment.