Not understanding what is being said and not being able to compose complete sentences is a great limitation for anyone who is affected by it and in particular for those who work with words such as, for example, the actors. For this Bruce Willis had to announce his retirement from the cinema. At the age of 67, the American actor was struck by aphasia, a language disorder that also has consequences on a cognitive level.
What is aphasia
A person with aphasia does not understand what is being said and cannot produce complete meaningful sentences that allow communication. He cannot read, write, do calculations, because writing and arithmetic skills are connected with the function of language.
The cause
Often this disorder arises after a stroke, a topic on which the journalist Andrea Vianello had also drawn attention following the stroke that had struck him. “The diseases that most frequently cause aphasia – he explains Tiziana Rossettopresident of the Federation of Italian Speech Therapists (Fli) – are those vascular and head trauma, but also tumors, infectious diseases or other can affect areas of language.
How many suffer from it
It is estimated that in a year about 120,000 people in Italy are affected by strokes, of these about 40,000 have acute language disorders and at least 15,000 still have major disorders after a year. According to data from the Federation of Italian Speech Therapists, in Italy the number of aphasic people following cerebrovascular diseases is around 150,000-200,000 with an annual incidence of 2 new cases per 1,000 inhabitants per year; to these must be added the subjects suffering from aphasia following head trauma or other diseases. Aphasia represents one of the most disabling consequences of stroke with a devastating impact on the activities of daily life, on autonomy, on relationships.
A ‘silent’ disease
Aphasia is more common than other much better known diseases, but little is said about it. “This silence – explains Tiziana Rossetto – is partly explainable if you think that aphasics are affected precisely in their ability to express themselves and do not know what their disease is. Aphasic people disappear because they are no longer able to interact normally. with their families, to re-enter the workplace. They are often excluded or self-excluded from their social environment and remain isolated in their suffering “.
How can you intervene
Aphasia is not a static disorder and in the first months after the morbid event there is some spontaneous recovery. “Numerous experimental studies – continues Rossetto – have shown that the only effective treatment, although very rarely decisive, is speech therapy, provided it is sufficiently protracted and intense. A research conducted on rehabilitation services in Italy has unfortunately highlighted the fact that the service offered very rarely responds to requests for intensity and duration necessary to obtain a significant result “.