Aphasia: Symptoms, Causes, Types, Treatment, and More (2024)

FAQs

What are 4 causes of aphasia? ›

Causes of aphasia

stroke – the most common cause of aphasia. severe head injury. a brain tumour. progressive neurological conditions – conditions that cause the brain and nervous system to become damaged over time, such as dementia.

Aphasia usually occurs suddenly, often following a stroke or head injury, but it may also develop slowly, as the result of a brain tumor or a progressive neurological disease. The disorder impairs the expression and understanding of language as well as reading and writing.

The recommended treatment for aphasia is usually speech and language therapy. Sometimes aphasia improves on its own without treatment. This treatment is carried out by a speech and language therapist (SLT). If you were admitted to hospital, there should be a speech and language therapy team there.

Dysarthria and aphasia represent primary symptoms of cerebral nerve dysfunction, and may particularly involve the facial and the hypoglossal nerves.

There are also multiple types of aphasia. The location of the damage in your brain determines the type of aphasia you have. This condition is almost always a symptom of another problem, such as a stroke or traumatic brain injury. It can also happen as a temporary effect of conditions like migraines.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans can help diagnose primary progressive aphasia, detect shrinking of certain areas of the brain and show which area of the brain might be affected. MRI scans can also detect strokes, tumors or other conditions that affect brain function.

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

Broca aphasia is a non-fluent aphasia in which the output of spontaneous speech is markedly diminished and there is a loss of normal grammatical structure. Specifically, small linking words, conjunctions, such as and, or, and but, and the use of prepositions are lost.

Some people with aphasia recover completely without treatment. But for most people, some amount of aphasia typically remains. Treatments such as speech therapy can often help recover some speech and language functions over time, but many people continue to have problems communicating.

Which drugs cause aphasia? ›

So far, several medications have been reported to cause aphasia, including: ipilimumab; immunomodulatory drugs (thalidomide, lenalidomide, pomalidomide); lamotrigine; vigabatrin; sulfasalazine; cyclosporine A; ifosfamide; phenylpropanolamine; naftidrofuryl oxalate; and some contrast mediums (Table 1).

Expressive aphasia caused by Streptococcus intermedius brain abscess in an immunocompetent patient - PMC. The . gov means it's official.

A person with aphasia may never regain their full speech and language skills. However, they may learn new ways to communicate. By recovery, we mean rebuilding or learning new communication skills, battling the isolation that often comes with aphasia, and reclaiming a piece of independence for you or your loved one.

Patients can recover from aphasia spontaneously, on their own without treatment, in a mild case. There is no guaranteed cure. The purpose of speech therapy is help the patient fully utilize the remaining skills and to learn compensatory skills.

Aphasia is a language disorder that affects your ability to communicate. It's most often caused by strokes in the left side of the brain that control speech and language. People with aphasia may struggle with communicating in daily activities at home, socially or at work.

Aphasia is not a disease, but a symptom of brain damage. Although it is primarily seen in individuals who have suffered a stroke, aphasia can also result from a brain tumor, infection, inflammation, head injury, or dementia that affect language-associated regions of the brain.

Aphasia after a stroke is common but a traumatic brain injury or brain infection can also cause aphasia. The three kinds of post-stroke aphasia are Broca's aphasia, Wernicke's aphasia, and global aphasia, which all affect your ability to speak and/or understand language.

Damage to the temporal lobe (the side portion) of the brain may result in a fluent aphasia called Wernicke's aphasia (see figure). In most people, the damage occurs in the left temporal lobe, although it can result from damage to the right lobe as well.

Broca's (expressive or motor) Aphasia

Damage to a discrete part of the brain in the left frontal lobe (Broca's area) of the language-dominant hemisphere has been shown to significantly affect the use of spontaneous speech and motor speech control.

Can aphasia be caused by stress? ›

The answer is no. There are several common and possible causes of aphasia, however anxiety is not among them. At the same time, anxiety often occurs after strokes, and it is commonly seen in people with aphasia. It's not at all surprising that many people wonder about the connection between anxiety and aphasia.

The prognosis for aphasia recovery depends in large part upon the underlying etiology. This has been best studied in cerebrovascular disease. Most patients with poststroke aphasia improve to some extent [1-4,14,15]. Most improvement occurs within the first few months and plateaus after one year.

Aphasia may be mild or severe. With mild aphasia, the person may be able to converse, yet have trouble finding the right word or understanding complex conversations. Serious aphasia makes the person less able to communicate. The person may say little and may not take part in or understand any conversation.

People with aphasia are often frustrated and confused because they can't speak as well or understand things the way they did before their stroke. They may act differently because of changes in their brain. Imagine looking at the headlines of the morning newspaper and not being able to recognize the words.

Symptoms begin gradually, often before age 65, and worsen over time.

About Aphasia

Language skills are in the left half of the brain in most people. Damage on that side of your brain may lead to language problems. Damage on the right side of your brain may cause other problems, like poor attention or memory. Aphasia may make it hard for you to understand, speak, read, or write.

Wernicke's aphasia causes you to speak in a jumbled “word salad” that others can't understand. Broca's aphasia leaves you with limited language. You might only be able to say single words or very short sentences. But others can usually understand what you mean.

Broca's aphasia causes

stroke. brain tumor. injury to the brain, such as from a severe blow to the head or gunshot wound. infection in the brain.

Wernicke aphasia is characterized by impaired language comprehension. Despite this impaired comprehension, speech may have a normal rate, rhythm, and grammar. The most common cause of Wernicke's aphasia is an ischemic stroke affecting the posterior temporal lobe of the dominant hemisphere.

What type of tumor causes aphasia? ›

Brain tumors can either be benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). A tumor can cause aphasia if it impacts the brain's language centers. Aphasia due to cancer is called neoplastic aphasia. Although brain tumors are not as common as strokes, about 30-50% of people with brain tumors experience aphasia.

The most common cause of aphasia is brain damage resulting from a stroke — the blockage or rupture of a blood vessel in the brain.

Although it is primarily seen in individuals who have suffered a stroke, aphasia can also result from a brain tumor, infection, inflammation, head injury, or dementia that affect language-associated regions of the brain. It is estimated that about 1 million people in the United States today suffer from aphasia.

A person with aphasia may never regain their full speech and language skills. However, they may learn new ways to communicate. By recovery, we mean rebuilding or learning new communication skills, battling the isolation that often comes with aphasia, and reclaiming a piece of independence for you or your loved one.

Damage to the temporal lobe (the side portion) of the brain may result in a fluent aphasia called Wernicke's aphasia (see figure). In most people, the damage occurs in the left temporal lobe, although it can result from damage to the right lobe as well.

Aphasia is a sign of damage or serious disruptions in your brain. Most conditions that cause aphasia are severe, and some are life-threatening medical emergencies.

The prognosis for aphasia recovery depends in large part upon the underlying etiology. This has been best studied in cerebrovascular disease. Most patients with poststroke aphasia improve to some extent [1-4,14,15]. Most improvement occurs within the first few months and plateaus after one year.

Outlook / Prognosis

Primary progressive aphasia worsens over time. Many people with PPA eventually lose their language skills over many years, limiting their ability to communicate. Most people who have the condition live up to 12 years after their initial diagnosis.

Some people develop substantial difficulty forming sounds to speak (a problem called apraxia of speech), even when their ability to write and comprehend are not significantly impaired. As the disease progresses, other mental skills, such as memory, can become impaired.

So far, several medications have been reported to cause aphasia, including: ipilimumab; immunomodulatory drugs (thalidomide, lenalidomide, pomalidomide); lamotrigine; vigabatrin; sulfasalazine; cyclosporine A; ifosfamide; phenylpropanolamine; naftidrofuryl oxalate; and some contrast mediums (Table 1).

Does aphasia affect eating? ›

Results: Patients with PPA-S had diverse swallowing problems such as drooling of saliva or food, multiple swallows, delayed swallow and choking, all of which correlated with anxiety, apathy and aberrant motor behavior.

The diagnosis of aphasia does NOT imply a person has a mental illness or impairment in intelligence. What Causes Aphasia? The most common cause of aphasia is stroke (about 25-40% of stroke survivors acquire aphasia). It can also result from head injury, brain tumor or other neurological causes.

People with aphasia have a clear idea of what they want to articulate, but damage to the brain does not allow for effective communication. Symptoms vary depending on where in the brain the injury occurs, but aphasia can affect spoken language, comprehension of language, written expression, or reading comprehension.

Late-Stage Primary Progressive Aphasia

In late-stage PPA, the gradual loss of speech and language will typically result in severely pronounced symptoms. Eventually, almost all patients with PPA lose their ability to speak, read, and write. Spoken language becomes incomprehensible.