Aphasia

The little-known condition can be caused by a stroke, tumour, head injury or other damage to the language centres of the brain. It can also be triggered by a ...

This often hidden disorder impacts people’s ability to express themselves with words and/or understand verbal language.” Without oxygen and nutrients, brain cells die, which leads to the difficulty retrieving words. It can also be triggered by a brain infection or Alzheimer’s disease.

After a career spanning 40 years, 67-year-old Bruce Willis has stepped away from acting due to health issues, including a diagnosis of aphasia.

Be aware of the signs of stroke and aphasia associated with dementia. The impact of aphasia is not just felt by the person with aphasia. A speech pathologist can also be a part of this process. This includes working with medical, nursing and allied health professionals such as psychologists, occupational therapists, social workers and physiotherapists. They work within multidisciplinary health-care teams across a variety of hospital and community-based sites. Willis can be grateful in this respect.

His ex-wife, Demi Moore, shared the news in an Instagram post, saying the disease was “impacting his cognitive abilities”. Here's what we know about the condition. What is aphasia? Aphasia is a constellation of symptoms that make it difficult or impossible ...

The condition can come on suddenly, particularly in the wake of a stroke, but some people with aphasia develop it gradually. It also operates a network of support groups for people with aphasia and their carers. Aphasia can be devastating for patients, disrupting their ability to take part in everyday life. While aphasia occurs mostly in patients over age 65, it can develop at any age. Those with expressive aphasia may struggle to speak in complete sentences or find the words they are looking for. On Wednesday it was announced that Bruce Willis will step away from his decades-long movie career in the wake of a recent aphasia diagnosis.

The condition affects the language part of a person's brain and can impact a person's ability to speak, comprehend others, read and write.

The cause of the brain injury, extent and area of the brain damage, and age and health of the affected person all play a role in prognosis. The first symptoms are usually problems with speech and language, progressing to a nearly total inability to speak, in its most severe stage. Aphasia is usually diagnosed after tests carried out by a clinician – either a speech and language therapist or a doctor. The Irish Heart Foundation says around a third of the 10,000 people a year in Ireland who suffer a stroke suffer from post-stroke aphasia. The first symptoms are usually problems with speech and language, progressing to a nearly total inability to speak, in its most severe stage.results in a person’s language capabilities becoming slowly and progressively impaired. Aphasia is a condition that can occur when the language part of a person’s brain is damaged.

Actor Bruce Willis, 67, is “stepping away” from his career in film and TV after being diagnosed with aphasia, his family announced on March 30, 2022.

But the road can be long, and it depends on the extent of damage to the brain. Unlike in cases of stroke, the onset will be very mild at first – people will slowly forget the names of people or of objects. It is usually people over the age of 65 simply because they have a higher risk of stroke. There is also a separate form of the condition called primary progressive aphasia. A loss of both speaking and comprehension of language would suggest damage to both the large temporal lobe and frontal lobe. Some people with aphasia only have difficulty understanding language – a result of damage to the temporal lobe, which governs how sound and language are processed in the brain.

Johns Hopkins calls the condition a "language disorder" that can impact men and women equally.

Speech therapy can help those with loss of language, Kaelin said. This goes beyond just forgetting a name here or there, she said. Dr. Kerri Remmel, the Director of Stroke for U of L Health, said it's an "acquired disorder of the ability to understand or express language," though it can look different depending on the person and cause.

Traumatic brain injury. Brain tumor or infection. Degenerative conditions like dementia. Migraines, seizures or transient ischemic attack (TIA) can cause ...

“If the symptoms come on suddenly, it could be a sign of a stroke and the person should seek immediate medical attention.” Aphasia, according to Sylvia Fisher, speech-language pathology program manager with the Hartford HealthCare Rehabilitation Network, is a language disorder that hinders a person’s ability to communicate, making it difficult to speak, write, read and understand what others are saying. Common symptoms include: Fully understanding Willis’ future depends on the cause. This damage can result from: It’s perhaps the worst medical condition for an actor.

Aphasia can be devastating for patients, disrupting their everyday communication.

The condition can come on suddenly, particularly in the wake of a stroke, but some people with aphasia develop it gradually. It also operates a network of support groups for people with aphasia and their carers. Aphasia can be devastating for patients, disrupting their ability to take part in everyday life. While aphasia occurs mostly in patients over age 65, it can develop at any age. Those with expressive aphasia may struggle to speak in complete sentences or find the words they are looking for. On Wednesday it was announced that Bruce Willis will step away from his decades-long movie career in the wake of a recent aphasia diagnosis.

In the Willis family's statement, signed by Emma, Demi, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel, and Evelyn, no possible cause of Bruce's aphasia was mentioned.

Charities such as Aphasia Ireland aim to create awareness and support for those who suffer from the condition. For those who have degenerative conditions, where further decline is expected, CNN reports that health professionals often focus on providing compensatory assistance in the form of pictures and large print formatting to help the person communicate. As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.” For those with milder forms of the condition, their treatment can be restorative. They may lose the ability to recognize words by sight or to sound out written words. Infection in the brain or Alzheimer’s disease can also trigger it.

While details of Willis' diagnosis are unknown, medical experts stress the importance of the brain condition and how its specifically treated — depending on ...

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The veteran Hollywood actor's retirement has drawn attention to the little-known illness that has many causes.

Most commonly, it is caused by a stroke that cuts off blood to part of the brain. “As a result of this and with much consideration, Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him,” the family said in a statement. The announcement by American actor Bruce Willis that he will be “stepping away” from the big screen has drawn attention to aphasia, a little-known condition with many causes.

Film star 'stepping away' from acting due to brain condition that affects ability to communicate.

But “although aphasia affects a person’s ability to communicate, it doesn’t affect their intelligence”. In a 2017 article for The Guardian, mother-of-two Helen Harris described her slow recovery from aphasia following brain surgery. Aphasia is characterised by difficulty with language or speech and “is usually caused by damage to the left side of the brain (for example, after a stroke)”, according to the NHS website.