Apraxia in short

Scroll down the page to read the summary table on apraxia.

Apraxia: definition Obvious difficulty or inability to perform voluntary movements: apraxia is a neuropsychological disorder directly related to movement deficits, both in terms of planning and motor programming Apraxia: analysis of the term and its meaning Apraxia comes from the Greek a-praxìa:

prefix to- indicates a negation
suffix –Praxìa it means Do

→ literally not-doing, impossibility of doing Aphasia and general characters Most apraxic patients are unaware of their deficit, are normo-intelligent, are not disabled, and both will and motor skills remain unaffected. Apraxia: causes and clinical evidence

Cerebrovascular injury: thrombotic or embolic infarcts, long-term hemodialysis, stroke and brain tumors
Possible worsening of apraxia as a result of concomitant psychological illnesses
Close correlation between Alzheimer's disease and neurodegenerative diseases
Injuries to the corpus callosum
30% of patients with left brain injury also suffer from some form of apraxia

Apraxia: anatomical targets Apraxia mainly affects the muscles of the arms, while those of the legs and face are only hardly affected; apraxia of the trunk is questionable Clinical aspect of apraxia (design errors)

Lack of some essential elements for the completion of a movement
Bizarre realization of the gesture
The patient continues to repeat that gesture
Temporal uncoordination
Object = hand
Replacing one movement with another wrong one

Aphasia and movement disorders Apraxia is meant as a disorder in its own right, yes associated to other movement disorders, but not directly related General classification of apraxia Classification based on the affected areas: apraxia of the limbs, oral and trunk
Classification of the forms of apraxia according to the degree of elaboration of the motor gesture Ideomotor apraxia The patient is unable to translate the gesture devised in movement Ideational (or ideational) apraxia Inability to perform the movements in the right temporal succession Constructive apraxia Impossibility of reproducing two / three-dimensional configurations, either on imitation or by heart Buccofacial apraxia Inability to perform indicative movements with the mouth, pharynx or neck muscles, even under imitative stimulation Trunk apraxia Inability of the patient to coordinate trunk movements and perform them correctly for a purpose Other forms of apraxia Verbal apraxia
Motor apraxia
Acrokinetic apraxia An element that unites all forms of apraxia Apraxia is not simply related to movement as such, rather it affects the organization, planning and coordination of gestures and movements Apraxia: diagnosis

Interpretative models essentially based on cognitive tests
Demonstration of the use of objects
Observation of the muscles used to perform an action
Magnetic resonance and computed tomography
Differential diagnosis between apraxia and aphasia, deafness, dementia, blindness, psychological disorders, etc.

Apraxia: therapies Patient rehabilitation: replacement and return approach
Lack of specific and exclusive drug therapy
The quantity of rehabilitation studies carried out for apraxia is rather small Apraxia: prognosis In general, apraxia is one of the disabling neuropathological diseases
Some forms of apraxia tend to resolve spontaneously (e.g. ideomotor apraxia)
Many apraxic symptoms worsen as the patient ages