What is aphasia and what are its main symptoms?

*This text has been written based on the information received from health institutions and organizations, hospitals and health professionals. If you or someone you know has any of the symptoms described here, our recommendation is to seek medical attention as soon as possible.

At the end of March 2022, the actor bruce willis His career was interrupted after he was diagnosed aphasia. More recently, Brazilian cartoonist angelKnown for characters like Bob Cuspe and Rê Bordosa, he also announced that he was removed due to the same discomfort.

The disease, which has already affected artists such as Sharon Stone and Emilia Clark, has caused difficulties in communication and has recently spread to the media. Find out below about its causes, symptoms, and how to treat it.

What is aphasia?

This aphasia It is a health condition that affects the patient’s ability to communicate with others. It can compromise different aspects of a person’s life, such as speaking, writing, or general understanding of language.

Very common after stroke or head injury, the disease can be caused by slow-growing tumors or problems that cause progressive and permanent damage to the brain.

The disorder is caused by damage to the parts of the head responsible for language. Broca’s areas of speech and Wernicke’s areas associated with interpretation are two particularly sensitive areas that can lead to the condition.

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Strokes are a common cause aphasia (Source: Shutterstock)

The disorder mostly affects middle-aged or older people, but everyone is susceptible to the problem. An estimated one million Americans suffer from the condition in the United States, with the number of cases increasing by 180,000 a year.

The problem may be accompanied by problems with pronouncing words correctly due to other disorders such as dysarthria or apraxia of speech, loss of control of facial muscles.

Symptoms

a person with aphasia There may be different symptoms. The use of short and incomplete or meaningless sentences is one of the most common. There may also be repetitive voice confusion and frequent misunderstandings during a conversation.

However, there are different patterns of the disease: significant, extensive or global. The first is also called aphasia. Broca or nonfluent affects the patient’s ability to understand.

Even if they can use simple sentences like “walk in the park today”, there is one difficulty that can be frustrating for those who suffer from this problem. The patient has difficulty accessing vocabulary and skips connecting words.

The comprehensive pattern (or fluent or Wernicke’s) allows the patient to use long and complex sentences, but is often meaningless. People with this condition may also use non-existent, incorrect, or unnecessary words while speaking.

In contrast, the last type of clinical case, the global case, is characterized by extensive damage to the areas of the brain responsible for language, resulting in major impairment in communication.

Those with this diagnosis lose their ability to read and write. The condition usually comes soon after the stroke and can improve if there is no extensive damage. However, in severe cases, there may be permanent impairment of cognitive function.

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patients with aphasia having trouble communicating (Source: Shutterstock)

There are less common types of the disorder that result from damage to other brain regions. For example, there are patients who can understand words and sentences but cannot repeat them and speak fluently (aphasia drive).

Another situation is those who have difficulty in naming objects even though they know them (anomic type). Finally, sometimes blood flow is temporarily interrupted, causing an injury called a transient ischemic attack that hinders language skills for hours or days.

diagnosis and treatment

Diagnosis is important both to assess the extent of the problem and to predict treatment success rates. A speech therapist can run a series of tests to confirm the condition.

Tests include speaking, naming, repetition, comprehension, reading and writing. In some cases, additional tests may be ordered by professionals, such as brain CT scans or MRI.

Aphasia is often a sign of serious brain conditions. Therefore, at the first manifestations, it is important to consult a doctor who can determine the cause of the disease and treat the comorbidities that caused it.

Once this approach is adopted, the consequences of aphasia treated with speech and language care. This is done with exercises that help relearn language skills and enable the patient to return to a quality life.