Aphasia

Aphasia

Aphasia (Greek ἀφασία aphasía, literally ‘speechlessness’) is an acquired language disorder resulting from a brain injury or illness. Although language and speech disorders can co-occur, it is essential to distinguish aphasia as a language disorder from speech motor disorders such as dysarthria and apraxia of speech.

Aphasias occur following various conditions (stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain haemorrhage after venous thrombosis, tumours, inflammatory diseases, etc.). They cause impairments in different linguistic modalities (speaking, understanding, writing, or reading) and in non-linguistic areas to varying degrees. Linguistic and non-linguistic symptoms are characteristically combined, which is why aphasia or aphasic disorders are also called multimodal disorders.

Causes

Aphasia can result from various causes, including stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain haemorrhage, brain tumour, inflammatory diseases, or toxic damage to the brain.
The different linguistic modalities, such as speaking, understanding, reading, and writing, are affected, but the extent of the impairment can vary.

Treatment

Following acute therapy, rehabilitation should be conducted in a specialised facility. The duration of the stay in a rehabilitation clinic varies depending on the individual condition of the patients and the extent of their functional impairments.

In rehabilitation, lost abilities can be either fully or partially regained. Intact areas of the brain can take over the functions of the damaged areas, and the damaged brain regions can partially regenerate.

Successful rehabilitation requires close collaboration between doctors from various specialities, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists (logopedists), social workers, and other professionals with patients and their families.

An essential task of rehabilitation is not only to restore lost functions but also to help patients learn to live with any remaining impairments and manage their daily lives. Patient motivation plays a crucial role in this process. The more actively they participate in exercises, the greater the success of the rehabilitation.