Thursday, March 28

What is aphasia? We explain the disease of Bruce Willis | Digital Trends Spanish


On March 30, the family of Bruce Willis announced that the 67-year-old actor we saw on Die Hard and pulp fiction He is “walking away” from his film career, this after being diagnosed with aphasia. In a message posted on Instagramher daughter, Rumer Willis, said the condition was “affecting her cognitive abilities.”

As a result of that announcement, many people began to wonder what this disease was about, but the truth is that a large part of the population suffers from it. Here we tell you everything we know about aphasia.

What is aphasia?

Aphasia is a communication disorder that affects a person’s ability to speak or understand speech. In addition, it affects the way they understand written words and their ability to read and write, according to swathi kirandirector of the Boston University Aphasia Research Laboratory (via The Conversation).

It is important to note that aphasia can take different forms. Some people 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.

But other people only have difficulty speaking, which indicates damage to the frontal lobe. A loss of both speech and language comprehension would suggest damage to both the large temporal lobe and the frontal lobe.

Almost all people with aphasia have difficulty finding the names of things they know. And because of that, they have trouble using words in sentences. Likewise, the order of the words in the sentence can also be altered and they can speak with meaningless phrases or with unrecognizable words.

Unfortunately, aphasia is quite common. About a third of all stroke survivors have it. In the United States, about 2 million people have aphasia, and about 225,000 Americans are diagnosed each year.

Why does aphasia occur?

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In most cases, aphasia is the result of a stroke or hemorrhage in the brain. It can also be caused by damage to the brain caused by an impact injury, such as a car accident, and by brain tumors, infections, or dementia.

There is also a separate form of the condition called primary progressive aphasia. This starts with mild symptoms but gets worse over time. The medical community does not know what causes primary progressive aphasia.

What is known is that it affects the same brain regions as in cases where aphasia is the result of a stroke or hemorrhage, but the onset of symptoms follows a different trajectory.

In whom can aphasia manifest?

There is no gender difference as to who suffers from aphasia. But people at higher risk of stroke, meaning those with cardiovascular disabilities and diabetes, are at higher risk. This also means that minority ethnic groups are at greater risk, simply because of the health disparities in the United States linked to racism.

Aphasia usually occurs in people over 65 years of age, because they are at increased risk of stroke. But, in reality, it can manifest itself at any age: young people and even infants can develop the condition.

What is the prognosis and treatment of aphasia?

Mart Production / Pexels

People with aphasia as a result of stroke or hemorrhage may recover over time, although how quickly and how much depends on the extent of brain damage and the therapy they receive.

On the other hand, primary progressive aphasia is degenerative: the patient will deteriorate over time, although the rate of deterioration may decrease.

The encouraging thing is that aphasia is treatable. In the nonprogressive form, consistent therapy will restore speech and comprehension with one-on-one repetition exercises. However, the road can be long, and recovery depends on the extent of the damage to the brain. And in the case of primary progressive aphasia, the symptoms of speech and language impairment will worsen over time.

But the clinical evidence is unequivocal: rehabilitation can help stroke survivors regain speech and language understanding and delay symptoms in cases of primary progressive aphasia.

Although there are clinical trials of certain types of drugs that are in development, there are none that can treat aphasia. For now, speech rehabilitation therapy is the most common treatment.

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