The Santa Lucia IRCCS Foundation study: performing cognitive exercises with the device allowed 10 patients to restore and strengthen language skills
Is called anomie and it is the main manifestation of language-related Alzheimer’s. The sick person has difficulty finding words to communicate with others. In place of the appropriate word, the patient may say none or pronounce one related in meaning, for example could say “dog” meaning “cat”. A group of researchers from the neurorehabilitation hospital Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation of Romedriven by Gian Daniele Zannino. has carried out a study – published in the scientific journal Aphasiology – which opens up the possibility of effectively treating a disabling disorder such as anomia in a remotely supervised telemedicine regime.
The consequences on memory and language
Alzheimer’s disease is the most widespread form of dementia: in Italy about 1.2 million people live with this disease. It is known for its consequences on memory and disorders affecting the episodic memory especially for recent events (who invited me to dinner a week ago) or very recent (why did my son call me a few minutes ago?) are the alarm bells that should lead to a visit with a neurologist and to more in-depth investigations. However, the ability to remember recent episodes and new information is not the only function to decline over the course of this disease. Other areas of cognition including language are also affected in the progression of the disease. The main manifestation of Alzheimer’s related to language consists precisely in the anomia.
What are the causes of the decline in language
The cause of these difficulties is twofold, on the one hand there is a progressive uncertainty about the meaning of the words (which is the cat? And how does it differ from the dog?) on the other hand there is one difficulty recalling the sound form of words (What is the name of that animal that I have in the house and that purrs?). At the Neuro-rehabilitation hospital of the Santa Lucia Foundation it was decided to experiment with a new form of therapy on a group of 10 patients with mild or moderate Alzheimer’s disease, all united by having a full-blown ailment in a figure naming test.
The goal of therapy
“The therapy aims to restore and strengthen the skills on meanings and their link with the corresponding words. – explains Gian Daniele Zannino, researcher of the Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation – It is actually a well known exercise in speech therapy, consisting in having the patient repeat a word while showing him the corresponding figure. So the vision of the figure “strengthens” the semantic characteristicswhile listening to the word in conjunction with the figure “strengthens” the link between concept and verbal etiquette».
The novelty: digitizing the exercise
The main novelty of the study is the digitize the exercise to make it usable on a tablet independently and at home with minimal help from a family member or other caregiver. Caregivers were involved in the study (usually spouses, sometimes children of the patient) in all cases: «The caregivers helped the participants to manage the tablets and carry out the training; obviously the amount of help needed depended on the degree of illness of the participant », adds Zannino.
Promising results
The results are promising: after only two weeks of treatment (a total of 10 20-minute sessions) patients showed a significant increase in the ability to name treated words unaided. How is this improvement measured? “By comparing how many words the patient was capable of name correctly before and after training – Zannino answers -. “Significant” is a statistical term, it indicates that the pre / post difference has characteristics that cannot be considered a random fluctuation in performance; there is a clear relationship between statistical significance and extent of improvement. Simplifying a bit, we could also say that the improvement was large enough that it could not be casuale».
The effects of home care
“Access to home care is particularly important for patients with Alzheimer’s disease” concludes Dr. Zannino. “It is important for them to be in a familiar and well-known place, from which they are not bewildered. Through a simple technological device, such as a tablet connected to the network, it is thus possible to increase the effectiveness of the treatment and reduce the commitment on the part of family members that support the patient in terms of access to a hospital or travel ».
September 4, 2022 (change September 4, 2022 | 11:43)
© Time.News