APHASIA: THERAPY

Aphasia: treatable disease?

Fortunately, aphasia is a treatable disease for many patients: however, each individual responds subjectively to treatment, since speech disorder, as we have seen in previous articles, can present itself in many facets. Consequently, it is not. It is possible to accurately estimate the timing of recovery from aphasia: the duration of the therapeutic cycle depends on the subject, the age of the patient, the cause that caused aphasia and the therapeutic option chosen. This concluding article is aimed at the treatment of ataxia therapies according to the main guidelines, drawn up to help the ataxic patient to live in a serene way with the disease.

Care

As can be guessed, most ataxics are hospitalized, not so much for the ataxia itself, rather for the cause that triggered it (eg stroke and brain damage in general). After hospital discharge, the aphasic patient requires further treatment, which can last for a few weeks, months or even years in cases of greater severity. In most aphasias, the ataxic patient heals faster during the first three months of therapy, immediately following the brain injury.
Aphasics are subjected to cycles of speech therapy therapies, aimed at correcting or healing the aphasic symptomatological picture; the hopes of symptom improvement or complete recovery from the disease also depend on the possibility of accessing specific rehabilitation facilities.
Aphasic patients are treated with a targeted treatment rehabilitation of communication. In this regard, a distinction is necessary based on the severity of the disease: the therapeutic strategy undertaken by subjects with mild aphasia is aimed at "care of thoughtsRather than words. For the most severe aphasics, however, the therapy is more complex and problematic, because the patient shows disturbances both in translating words into thought and in transforming his own thoughts into words. In this regard, frequent are recommended linguistic approaches (e.g. repetition of words), in addition to the learning therapy through visual, tactile and linguistic stimuli [taken from www.msd-italia.it/].
In some cases, linguistic-cognitive and pragmatic-communicative therapies are necessary, particularly useful for the treatment of aphasia following a stroke.
In some patients - especially those affected by non-fluent forms of aphasia - a marked difficulty in regaining linguistic abilities was found; in such situations, one is recommended communicative rehabilitation by means of images and figures.

Clinical evidence

Although many authors consider ataxia a disease that is difficult to cure in a short time, it seems that a targeted and continuous rehabilitation can produce extraordinary results. Clinical evidence shows, in fact, that the regularity of speech rehabilitation is essential for a good prognosis, even for those elderly patients who start therapy long after the onset of the disease.
In some cases of mild aphasia, the patient regains all language skills without the need for targeted rehabilitation therapy.
Recent clinical studies have shown that bilingual patients with aphasia regain the ability to speak and communicate with their mother tongue relatively quickly; the second language, on the other hand, is only with difficulty recovered.
The simple figure of the doctor, although indispensable, is not sufficient to heal the aphasic patient: in fact, patients also and above all need family support, in order to ensure continuous, regular and lasting help.

Aphasia: reflections

Language, the ability to articulate, to understand what other people say, to write, to produce meaningful expressions represent simple actions, taken for granted for most human beings: few are aware of the preciousness and importance of language. Only when this gift is denied, its value can be fully appreciated, just think of the difficulties in understanding the language of a foreigner: sometimes, even knowing the language, communication is difficult and limited.
When the brain is unable to translate thought into words and words into thought, the possibility of exposing oneself, of telling about oneself, of ordering a coffee, of thanking, of expressing one's emotions, of apologizing, of asking is denied. help: aphasia demolishes the possibility of feeling life.
These are just small examples, useful for understanding how complex and problematic the aphasic disorder is: the denial of communication is a disabling torment in all respects.