Dysphasia

Dysphasia is a partial or complete impairment of the ability to communicate resulting from brain injury. There are several types of dysphasia: Expressive (Broca's and Transcortical); Receptive (Wernicke's, Anomic, and Conduction); and Global.

In order to distinguish dysphagia (trouble with swallowing) and dysphasia (language disorder) the medical world often calls dysphasia by the name Aphasia. However, while aphasia tends to "affect your ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written", with Dysphasia you will have those symptoms and trouble listening and doing numeral calculations."

Dysphasia and ME/CFS
Aphasia, dysphasia, and word-finding problems in general are reported symptoms of ME/CFS and fibromyalgia. However, neither ME/CFS or fibromyalgia patients have been researched for this language impairment.

Presentation
Dysphasia can affect comprehension (understanding spoken language), naming (identifying items with words), repetition (repeating words or phrases), and speech.

Prevalence
"Approximately one million Americans currently suffer from one of the various forms of dysphasia, and an additional 80,000 new cases occur annually."

Presentation
Sufferers can think clearly and understand their feelings. However, they will have difficulty in:
 * Talking
 * Understanding
 * Listening
 * Writing or doing numeral calculations
 * Everyday tasks like shopping or answering the phone
 * Comprehension
 * Reading comprehension
 * Language comprehension
 * Abstractions (verbal)
 * Semantic Meaning
 * Hierarchical Classification Language
 * Complex Grammatical Structure
 * Word Problems in Math
 * Verbal Association
 * Language Delay
 * Receptive and Expressive Language
 * Language Output
 * Meta-linguistic Function

Possible causes
Damage or trauma to the brain, most commonly stroke, can cause dysphasia. Infection, direct trauma, transient ischemic attack (TIA), brain tumors, and degeneration can also instigate its onset which will quickly manifest itself after damage to the brain. "Expressive dysphasias can be accompanied by noticeable motor impairment."

29 causes of Dysphasia:
 * Alzheimer's disease
 * Bell's palsy
 * Brain abscess
 * Brain failure
 * Brain tumour
 * Cerebral tumours
 * Cerebrovascular accident
 * Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
 * Dialysis encephalopathy syndrome
 * Encephalitis head trauma
 * Food Additive Adverse reaction - chocolate
 * Food Additive Adverse reaction - sulphite a
 * Gerstmann-Badal syndrome
 * Gonionemus poisoning
 * Hallervorden-Spatz disease
 * Hallervorden-Spatz Syndrome
 * Hemiplegic migraine, familial type 1
 * Hemiplegic migraine, familial type 2
 * Herpes simplex encephalitis
 * Intracranial space-occupying lesion
 * Landau-Kleffner syndrome
 * Neurosyphilis - dysphasia
 * Neurosyphilis - meningovascular
 * Pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration
 * Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy
 * Seizure disorder
 * Stroke
 * Stroke affecting Broca's and Wernicke's area
 * Transient ischemic attack (TIA)

Potential treatments
Treating and stabilizing the injury underlying the development of the patient's dysphasia must take place immediately. When damage is caused by TIA a full recovery can happen within a few days. However, most dysphasias can take months or years to recover from and even after prolonged therapy, many patients never achieve a full recovery. Treatment depends on speech therapies by a trained speech therapist. Patients can also use techniques such as talking slowly and repeating things, using gestures and drawings, and avoiding noisy areas can all help in dealing with dysphasia. "Dysphasic people need a lot of emotional support."

Learn more

 * Language Impairment in Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome