While Alzheimer's Disease is probably one of the best-known forms of dementia, there are many equally bad types that are not as prevalent. One of these is primary progressive aphasia, which affects the brain's language center. Aphasia is a "loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage," according to the dictionary on my dashboard. While PPA is often mistaken for Alzheimer's, it is clearly different in several ways. First, it chiefly affects the brain's language center and only attacks memory after some time. Also, in Alzheimer's, the patient him/herself cannot recognize that he/she is affected by the disease, and it is often family members to identify the symptoms. However, those with PPA usually detect a deterioration in their ability to communicate before people around them sense a difference. Some similarities are that it shortens lifespan (most patients live to 67) and is a from of dementia. Sadly, frequent misdiagnoses of the disease result in incorrect treatment, which sets back the fight a long way. According to Dr. Duffy, head of speech pathology in Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, "early intervention is important."
With the language-harming effects of the condition come an even worse symptom: the deterioration of communication. The wife of patient Steve Riedner compares it to raising a child again. Riedner can "open the car window, then not know how to close it," and even recommended forms of communication like the iPad, which has apps that can talk for a person, were no help in his advanced stage of PPA. Even sign language does not work, as it utilizes the same area of the brain.
In terms of treatment, there is nothing that can even begin to revert the process of language-center failure. However, treatment usually focuses on saving the stronger parts of the person's communication and leaving the weaker elements behind. As I mentioned earlier, computers, picture icons, and iPad apps are recommended as alternate forms of communication. Dr. Mesulam, the first person to recognize the disease in today's world, says that it affects "word-finding, object naming, syntax, phonology, morphology, spelling, or word comprehension." He goes on to say that the disease comes gradually, over years.
Note: Some definitions to clarify, all from my dashboard dictionary.
Syntax: the arrangement of words to create well-formed sentences in a language
Phonology: the branch of linguistics that deals with systems of sounds in a particular language
Morphology: in linguistics, the study of the form of words
My thoughts: this is truly a terrible disease, and even more unfortunate is that it is not recognized and valuable time is wasted on unnecessary forms of treatment. It would completely terrifying, as the affected person, to realize that you could not speak with the coordination of old, that the numbers started to look like a jumble on the page, that your own notes began to read like gobbledegook. Another awful aspect is that communication itself is difficult, and after the early stages of PPA, cannot even be achieved by some patients. One aspect that was surprising to me was that it was not seen to be a new and different disease sooner, especially since, in some ways, it was so clearly different from others (i.e. the patient knew before his/her companions). When, I wonder, will cures for dementia begin to appear, or more effective forms of treatment? It is up front with the most horrible illnesses today in all of its shapes and forms.
Brody, Jane E. "A Thief that Robs the Brain of Language." The New York Times.
N.p., 2 May 2011. Web. 3 May 2011.
N.p., 2 May 2011. Web. 3 May 2011.
Children's Fund, Inc. N.p., 26 Mar. 2010. Web. 4 May 2011.
<http://www.npcfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/dementia-brain.jpg>.
Source for image.
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