Aphasia: what it is, causes and symptoms of the disease from which Bruce Willis suffers

The announcement on social media of Bruce Willis' daughter has turned the spotlight on this serious disorder that affects the nervous system and causes severe language impairment

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In the past few hours, Rumer Willis, daughter of actor Bruce, announced the retirement of her father from the world of entertainment and cinema due to health problems that have recently arisen and connected to aphasia, a pathology that limits and damages the cognitive abilities of who is affected.

This is a really tough time for our family and we appreciate your continued love, compassion and support so much - wrote the young on Instagram, speaking on behalf of the artist's entire family. - We are going through this as a strong family unit and we wanted to involve fans of him because we know how important he is to you, just as you are important to him.

But what is theaphasia, what are its causes and, above all, are there any effective remedies and treatments? Let's try to clarify. It is a disorder resulting from damage to certain sections of the brain, related to the ability to speak.

This disorder usually comes on suddenly, due to a traumatic event to the brain - such as a stroke or head injury. However, the disease can also develop slowly and initially latently, as a result of a brain tumor or a progressive neurological disease. In both cases, the progression of the disease impairs the person's ability to communicate verbally, but also to write and read.

There are two types of aphasia: fluent and non-fluent. In the first case, the subjects are able to speak, but produce long and completely meaningless sentences (very often inventing words that do not exist). Consequently, it is very difficult to understand what the patient is trying to communicate - even if the patient does not realize that his conversation is devoid of logic and complete meaning.

On the other hand, we speak of non-fluent aphasia if the damage mainly affects the frontal lobe of the brain. In this case, the patient manifests weakness and paralysis in the right side of the body (arm and leg) and serious difficulties in articulating even short sentences: those affected by non-fluent aphasia are perfectly capable of understanding what they are told and of processing thoughts, but is unable to speak except for short sounds or words.

Aphasia comes diagnosed through MRI or computed tomography (CT scan): these tests allow the doctor to check for the presence of a brain injury and to precisely identify its location.

After being diagnosed with aphasia, the life of the patient changes completely: a long and slow rehabilitation process begins which unfortunately, in the majority of cases, does not lead to total recovery - much depends on the severity of the injury and the size of the affected brain area. Recovery can take place thanks to speech therapy sessions, which can help the patient regain lost communication skills.

Involvement of the family in the treatment of the patient with aphasia is essential: spouse, children and other relatives must learn to relate to the sick relative in a new, different way, to establish a new form of communication with him that takes into account his impaired abilities.

This is why doctors recommend to the patient's family members a simplification of verbal language (short words, elementary sentences), the elimination of communicative distractions (such as television or radio), the continuous involvement of the patient in domestic conversations and moments of sociality. , the encouragement of any form of communication (whether written or spoken).

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Font: Instagram / NIH

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