What is aphasia?
Aphasia is a condition that robs you of the ability to communicate.
It can affect your ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written.
Aphasia typically occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head injury. But it can also come on gradually from a slow-growing brain tumor or a disease that causes progressive, permanent damage (degenerative).
The severity of aphasia depends on a number of conditions, including the cause and the extent of the brain damage.
Once the cause has been addressed, the main treatment for aphasia is speech and language therapy. The person with aphasia relearns and practices language skills and learns to use other ways to communicate. Family members often participate in the process, helping the person communicate.
Symptoms
A person with aphasia may:
- Speak in short or incomplete sentences
- Speak in sentences that don't make sense
- Substitute one word for another or one sound for another
- Speak unrecognizable words
- Not understand other people's conversation
- Write sentences that don't make sense
Causes
The most common cause of aphasia is brain damage resulting from a stroke.
Brain damage caused by a severe head injury, a tumor, an infection or a degenerative process also can cause aphasia. In these cases, the aphasia usually occurs with other types of cognitive problems, such as memory problems or confusion.
Sometimes temporary episodes of aphasia can occur. These can be due to migraines, seizures or a transient ischemic attack (TIA). A TIA occurs when blood flow is temporarily blocked to an area of the brain. People who've had a TIA are at an increased risk of having a stroke in the near future.
Complications
Aphasia can create numerous quality-of-life problems because communication is so much a part of your life. Communication difficulty may affect your job, relationships, day-to-day function.
Language barriers may lead to embarrassment, depression and relationship problems.
Source:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/aphasia/symptoms-causes/syc-20369518
