The news that the movie star Bruce Willis retires from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia has highlighted the lack of knowledge about this communication disorder.
This is what you should know.
What is aphasia?
“Aphasia simply means someone has a language problem they weren’t born with,” he explains. Hugo Bothaa neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
The most common causes are cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) or head injuries. Experts warn that while it can affect the production and comprehension of spoken or written speech, it typically doesn’t affect intelligence.
About two million Americans have it, according to the National Aphasia Associationand is more common than Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy wave muscular dystrophy.
A 2016 survey conducted by the association revealed that less than 9% of respondents knew what aphasia was.
Although it is usually caused by a specific event such as a stroke, “there are other possibilities, such as that it comes from a neurodegenerative disease,” he explains. brenda rappscientist specialized in cognition of the Johns Hopkins University.
In these cases, the damage is progressive and the therapy focuses on preventing future functional losses.
Willis’ family did not share the cause of his diagnosis in their statement.
What types exist?
The brain system that governs speech is a “very complex machine” that involves the ability to choose the right words, move the mouth appropriately to vocalize them, as well as hearing and encoding their meaning, Rapp said.
We all occasionally have trouble finding the right word, “but this happens a lot with aphasia,” he added.
Doctors occasionally classify aphasia into broad clinical categories that correlate with where the brain injury occurred.
In expressive aphasia, people “usually understand completely well but have trouble getting words out,” says speech therapist Brooke Hatfield of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
A person with this type of aphasia may use simple phrases like “want food” to be understood.
In receptive aphasia, “the words come easily, but they may not be the right ones. And it’s hard for that person to understand what they’re hearing,” Hatfield added.
Speech therapy
The good news, says Hatfield, is that “everyone has a chance to improve” in the long run.
“There are people who had their stroke 30 years ago who are working on their language and communication and making progress.”
The brain is extremely plastic, and speech therapy can activate other parts of it to “connect blocked pathways” in affected areas and forge new connections, Rapp says.
Such therapy also trains people to talk about a topic if they get stuck on a specific word.
Family members also develop strategies to make themselves understood better: “Things like shorter sentences, making sure you’re talking to the person in sight and not from another room, and minimizing background noise,” says Botha.
Some people do well with assistive devices because their ability to type isn’t affected in the same way.
Looking ahead, there are experimental treatments that combine electrical stimulation of the brain with speech therapy, which have shown promising results in functional recovery, says Rapp.
Patience
All experts emphasize the importance of patience. Aphasia can be frustrating and isolating because “our relationships with others depend so much on being able to talk to them and communicate with them,” says Rapp, which can lead to patients or their caregivers throwing in the towel.
“It’s similar to suddenly waking up in a country where you don’t speak the language,” explains Hatfield, rather than a change in baseline cognitive abilities.