1.- What are primary progressive aphasias?
2.- What are their symptoms?
3 .- What can be their causes?
4.- What are the risk factors?
5.- Can complications appear?
What are primary progressive aphasias?
Primary progressive aphasias are a rare type of syndrome that attacks the nervous system and affects our ability to communicate. This can translate into problems expressing thoughts or comprehension problems when speaking.
It is a slowly developing pathology, usually before the age of 65. Symptoms are gradual and worsen over time. Those suffering from primary progressive aphasia may even lose their ability to speak or write, and even in very advanced cases, the loss of oral comprehension.
Primary progressive aphasia is classified as a type of frontotemporal dementia, i.e. it is a disease that directly degenerates the state of the frontal or temporal lobes of the brain, the areas of brain tissue that are related to speech and language.
Pathologies that affect the brain can be very difficult to treat.
difficult to treat.
What are the symptoms?
These can vary, as they depend on the area of the brain that is affected. That is why primary progressive aphasia is classified into three types, each with distinct symptoms. These are:
- Primary progressive aphasia of the semantic variant:
- Difficulties in understanding spoken and written language.
- Difficulties in understanding the meaning of words.
- Difficulties in naming things and objects
- Primary progressive aphasia of the logopenic variant.
- Difficulties in remembering words or substituting for words
- Frequent need to pause frequently to find words
- Difficulties in repeating sentences
- Primary progressive aphasia of the agrammatical variant
- Difficulties in understanding complex sentences
- A deficiency of grammar in both written and spoken language.
- Frequent grammar errors are made
- Development of speech problems, known as apraxia of speech.
What may be the causes?
The main cause of primary progressive aphasia is the reduction or atrophy of certain lobes of the brain that are responsible for speech and language. The lobes affected may be the frontal, temporal or parietal lobes, mainly those on the left side of our brain.
This atrophy occurs due to the presence of abnormal proteins, causing the brain activity of the area to be affected by being reduced.
What are the risk factors?
We can count a couple of important risk factors for primary progressive aphasia:
- Learning disabilities/difficulties, especially if during childhood we have suffered from dyslexia, we may be at higher risk for primary progressive aphasia.
- Certain genetic mutations, if for example in our family another family member has had primary progressive aphasia, also increase our chances of developing it.
Can complications arise?
Over time, those who suffer from primary progressive aphasia may lose the ability to speak and write and even to understand oral and written language. There are cases of people who develop enormous difficulty in forming sounds for speaking, even when their ability to write and to understand written language has not been affected in such a way.
As primary progressive aphasia degenerates, it may affect other areas of the brain, such as memory, for example. Some people may develop other neurological symptoms, such as difficulties with movement. For this reason, people with this disease will need help with long-term daily care.
Behavioral and social problems may also occur: decreased emotional response, such as carelessness, impaired sense of reality and inappropriate social behavior.