Dysphasia and Dysphagia
Dysphasia
Dysphasia or aphasia is the term for a sudden loss in the ability to process and/or use language. In most cases, dysphasia is caused due to damage or degeneration in the tissue of the left side of the brain, where language centres are located. This is commonly caused through stroke, more often in the left side of the brain, a brain tumour, an infection of the brain (meningitis), a severe head injury and dementia. Simply, dysphasia can affect one or more of the basic language functions: comprehension, naming, repetition and speech.
Signs and symptoms that may be linked to dysphasia:
• Difficulty remembering words
• Difficulty naming objects and/or people
• Difficulty speaking in complete and/or meaningful sentences
• Difficulty producing speech
• Difficulty reading or writing
• Difficulty expressing thoughts and feelings
• Difficulty understanding spoken language
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A person has difficulty producing spoken or written information has expressive dysphasia and will be unable to produce speech but will be able to understand what is said to them. Commonly both types of dysphasia can occur at once and this is called global dysphasia.
Prognosis
Around 50% of patients will suffer from dysphasia, in which the symptoms fade completely after only a few days. However, a patient's prognosis will greatly depend on multiple factors, such as the location and extent of the underlying damage, the patient's age, general health, mental health, support and motivation. Through a speech pathologist
Expressive (motor) Aphasia is a neurological condition that occurs when words cannot be formed, expressed, or may be absent due to an injury to the cerebral cortex. (Brooks & Brooks, 2012).
Communication, Due to Mrs X diagnosis of vascular type dementia with associated dysphasia. Dysphasia is a communication disorder that occurs when parts of the brain responsible for language becomes damaged. Due to Mrs X communication difficulties can become frustrated when she cannot find the right words. Staff should allow Mrs X the time to respond.
Dyspraxia is an immaturity in the way that the brain processes information, which results in messages not being properly or fully transmitted. It affects the planning of what to do and how to do it, and is associated with problems of perception, language and thought.
Human beings occasionally suffer bad damage to particular parts of their brains. Unfortunately, these injuries may lead to major failure of speech production, understanding language and comprehension which most of the patients suffer it permanently. This impairment is called Aphasia. Gayle (2012) states that people with aphasia fail to understand sentence comprehension although it is a simple sentence. She also mentioned that aphasia patients also have difficulty in reading and understanding speeches. According to Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams (2011), aphasia is a scientific term used to explained language disorder due to brain injuries caused by diseases or trauma. In other words, aphasia involves partial or total loss of the ability to
Dyspepsia is a functional upper GI disorder that causes upper abdominal pain or discomfort. This disorder affects up to 30% of the population. Non-ucler dyspepsia, also named functional dyspepsia, means that there is no found cause for the symptoms. Roughly six out of ten people affected by dyspepsia have non-ulcer dyspepsia. The pain it causes is typically constant although it can come and go in bouts. Dyspepsia is often caused by a stomach ucler, a duodenal ulcer, an inflamed esophagus, inflamed stomach or acid reflux disease. However, it can sometimes be caused by anti-inflammatory medicines. Although very rare, it can also be caused by stomach cancer.
Dyspepsia also known as indigestion is a discomfort in the upper abdomen that occurs either during or right after eating. Dyspepsia is sometimes confused with heartburn because some of the symptoms of dyspepsia are a burning heat or pain between the breastbone and naval area which is the same as heartburn. Other symptoms include an uncomfortable fullness that happens during the meal or immediately after the meal. Some uncommon symptoms are bloating and nausea. Dyspepsia, indigestion, is not considered a serious health problem but when coupled with other symptoms such as bleeding, weight loss, or difficulty swallowing then it is a sign of a serious health problem. On average dyspepsia occurs within one out of every four adults and in half of that population can be classified as functional dyspepsia.
Dysphagia, the sensation of hesitation or delay in the passage of food during swallowing, is a common and debilitating symptom. It can be sub-classified by either location (oropharyngeal or oesophageal) or by the circumstances in which it occurs (functional vs obstructive) [see Differential Diagnosis]. It is of particular relevance in Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) and its treatment, imposing significant immediate and long-term physical, emotional and psychosocial burdens on both patients and carers. The complaint of dysphagia, especially if new-onset or progressive, is a red flag symptom and should always be taken seriously as it may represent a neoplasm of the upper aerodigestive tract (UADT). A thorough medical history including focused closed
Dystonia is a disorder that affects more than 300,000 people in the United States. It’s a complex disorder that involves varied neurological movement and involuntary muscle contractions. Unfortunately, dystonia isn’t just subjected to people of a certain age or race which means it can affect just about anyone. The good news is that it isn’t as life threatening as many other disorders, but it can seriously impact someone’s life by making it hard to partake in simple daily functions. This disorder causes people to be embarrassed, which is what really can affect those that are affected.
At this point, mom and I were lost. I had gone to a local doctor, a crazy specialist, and a big hospital doctor, but nothing got me any closer to any answers. My headaches were getting worse and the medication I was on had some unwanted side effects, including dyphasia and paresthesia. I could handle the numb tingling of paresthesia in my hands and feet, but the loss of words dyphasia dished out broke me. Words were the last thing I had. I prided myself on knowing words other people didn 't. People respected me and looked up to me for knowing interesting words and writing well. Now I can 't even remember how to complete a thought in my own head. Writing, reading, speaking:
Dysphagia, a swallowing disorder that can be seen in anyone at any age, is a prevalent problem among aging adults. Dysphagia can be defined as an abnormal swallowing process. In other words, one is swallowing unconventionally (Sura, Madhaven, Carnaby, & Crary, 2012); but when one looks at the physiology behind dysphagia, they can note that this impairment is caused by an abnormality of function in one of the various swallowing structures, such as the lips, throat, or the lower jaw (Li, Wang, Han, Lu, & Fang, 2015). In fact, this swallowing disorder can be seen in a large number of adults annually for a variety of reasons, but most of the adults who develop dysphagia are elderly, which means that they are at a higher risk for problems that can eventually lead to this swallowing impairment (Sura, Madhaven, Carnaby, & Crary, 2012). Not only that, but dysphagia can commonly be found in adults who have head and neck cancers as well (Clarke, Radford, Coffey, & Stewart, 2016). Since dysphagia effects one’s ability to swallow, it can also impact areas that have to do with
Dysarthria and apraxia are speech disorders, which affect the motor skills of a person. These two speech disorders can occur concurrently with one another. Dysarthria is a result of impaired movement of the muscles that are used for speech production, which includes the tongue, lips, vocal folds, and the diaphragm. The severity and type of dysarthria depend on the location of where the nervous system is affected. Apraxia occurs when the messages from the brain to the mouth are disrupted, causing the person to be unable to move the lips or tongue to the right place to say sounds correctly, even though the muscles in the mouth are not weak. For apraxia, the severity depends on the brain damage. Despite both speech disorders
Aphasia is a language disorder that can be the result of a brain injury. An individual that is suffering from aphasia may experience difficulty speaking, writing, reading, or comprehending. There are three different types of Aphasia that differ in various ways. First, Wernicke’s Aphasia is the inability to grasp the meaning of words and sentences that have been produced by another individual. This type of aphasia is also known as “fluent aphasia” or “receptive aphasia”. Wernicke patients’ speech may come across like a jumble of words or jargon, but it is very well articulated and they have no issue producing their own connected speech. If the patient is consecutively making errors, it is common for them to be unaware of their difficulties, and not realize that their sentences don’t make sense. The severity of the disorder varies depending on the patient, and the disorder results form damage in the left posterior temporal region of the brain, which is also known as Wernicke’s area.
When a person works as a speech therapist there are multiple cases where you will deal with clients whose dysfluencies are caused by a deficiency in the nervous system. The nervous system is the control center of the body. Any damage to this system can cause long lasting affects to all the other systems. A person may have a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or a tumor that may result in dysfluency. Neurogenic stuttering is a type of dysfluency that can arise due to damage to the nervous system. Stuttering is involuntary interrupted speech. There are different types of stuttering-like disfluencies such as part-word repetition, single syllable word repetitions, and dysrhythmic phonations. The other dysfluencies people may have due to neurological damage is interjections polysyllabic word repetitions, phrase repetitions, and revisions. People are affected by these types of stuttering across the lifespan.
It can be quite difficult for the patient to use the muscles needed for speech; this is called dysarthria (www.ucp.org).
Help your loved one with exercises to strength the weak muscles that are behind their dysphagia.