Regaining Language in Aphasia Patients

 The outcome of aphasiac brain damage can seem debilitating to patients as their range of communication abilities is reduced. Depending on the extent of damage, and the area affected, there are treatments that can be employed to restore language abilities, either partially or completely.

The most commonly employed treatment process is speech and language therapy (SLT) and involves the patient working with a therapist on a series of exercises specially tailored to the type of aphasia damage. For patients who struggle to understand the meaning of words, activities, such as pairing words to pictures, or sorting words into groups based on their meaning, may be suggested, to redevelop word association knowledge and definition memory. If the trouble stems from a difficulty in expressing oneself coherently, a therapist may employ tasks in which the patient must name what they see in a picture, or judge whether or not words rhyme with one another. On top of working in one-on-one sessions with a speech therapist, often specially-designed computer programmes are used, alongside group speech sessions in order to improve conversational abilities.

Under circumstances where speech abilities are not restored to a functional level, speech therapists may work with the patient to develop alternative methods of communication. These may be in the form of gestural language, drawing or writing, or communication charts, where the patient has a grid of words or letters and can point to them to convey what they want to say.

While SLT is the most common form of therapy, research is also ongoing into medications and brain stimulation therapies. Certain drugs are being analyzed for their affects on aphasia symptoms, such as bifemelane, which has been noted for its abilities to increase circulation of blood in the brain, while others are being tested for increasing the brain's ability to recover and repair itself, and to help raise levels of depleted chemicals in the brain. Transcranial magnetic stimulation also holds promise, a technique that involves placing an electromagnet on the scalp and briefly sending an electromagnetic current through it to affected areas of the brain to re-stimulate activity in them.

Many of these alternative theories are still in the trial phase and so, currently, SLT is the most effective and widely used treatment. The prognosis of aphasia treatments can be difficult to predict, as it is heavily influenced by how severe the damage was, and also how healthy the brain was pre-injury. Recovery attempts are more likely to be successful in younger patients and are more effective the sooner they are started. Improvements in language and communication are most prominent in the first six months after the injury, however, this does not mean that recovery is impossible after this stage, with improvements still possible after several years in some cases.