Bruce Willis, well known for his role as John McClane in the Die Hard trilogy, announced his retirement on Wednesday after being diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that impairs a person’s ability to speak, write, and interpret a language.
Aphasia is a disorder that affects the brain’s file system, causing people to be unable to find the words they want to say, skip out on words in their sentences, or even come up with wrong words, ending in gibberish. They have trouble comprehending people because of the jumbled filing system.
Damage to the motor skills might also cause the disorder.
According to an Expert Group on Aphasia under the umbrella of the Indian Academy of Neurology, aphasia can remain as a disability in 21% to 38% of stroke survivors, with roughly 43 new cases recorded each year per 100,000 population. According to the associations’ most recent public data from 2019, over two million persons in India suffer with the disease.
According to Dr. Dhamija, everybody who is at danger of having a stroke. “Because stroke causes the majority of the aphasia cases we encounter in our clinics, we can state that anyone with diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, or who smokes is at a higher risk of acquiring aphasia as a result.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, aphasia may be classified into three classes based on how the brain is damaged and the pattern of obstacles.
One is expressive aphasia, in which the patient is able to comprehend others but not communicate. People with this type of dementia have trouble speaking and frequently use short sentences like ‘want food.’
Two, complete aphasia, in which the patient speaks fluently in complex phrases but uses unrecognisable, erroneous, or unneeded words, making it difficult for others to comprehend them. The sufferers, on the other hand, are unaware that others are unable to comprehend them.
Three, global aphasia, which causes difficulties comprehending and producing words and phrases.
Speech and language therapy, in which therapists teach the brain to sort out the file system, is now the only treatment available.
“They begin with simple words and connections, then progress to more complicated ones.” We now know that due to neuroplasticity, various areas of the brain that were not harmed by the stroke or lesion might take over the functions of the language centre,” stated Dr. Dhamija.
Therapeutics that help the brain recover or restore neurotransmitters are still being researched. The use of brain stimulation to treat the illness is also being researched.
