family announced American movie star Bruce Willis said in a statement yesterday (Wednesday) that the star of the “Die Hard” series will retire from acting after suffering from “aphasia.”
What do we know about this disease?
According to CNN, aphasia is a “devastating” health condition that affects an individual’s ability to communicate effectively with others, and makes it difficult to write, speak, or even understand what people are saying.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association says that people with aphasia may have problems finding words, they may speak in short, choppy or incomplete sentences, and they can even make up meaningless words and use them in their speech and writing.
According to the association, a person with aphasia can have problems transcribing letters and words accurately, and the written communications of those affected are often riddled with grammatical errors and incomplete sentences.
In addition, this health problem can also affect the person’s ability to understand others.
The Society for Speech-Language and Hearing notes that these patients may not understand spoken or written sentences, need extra time to absorb and understand what is being said or read, and may have difficulty keeping track of the words of someone who speaks quickly or understanding complex sentences and concepts.
In general, the effect of aphasia can vary from person to person, based on the extent and location of the brain damage.
Some people only lose their ability to find or repeat words and phrases, but not their ability to understand, while others suffer severe damage that affects their cognitive abilities significantly.
Causes and treatment
This condition occurs due to damage to the language centers in the brain, often as a result of a severe head injury, infection or brain tumor, or a degenerative disease such as dementia, according to the Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
However, stroke is the biggest cause of this condition. Between 25 percent and 40 percent of stroke survivors develop aphasia, according to the US National Aphasia Association, which notes that older adults are most at risk.
The National Aphasia Association notes that a full recovery from aphasia is unlikely if symptoms persist more than two or three months after a stroke, but added that “some people continue to improve over years and even decades.”
To combat aphasia, “speech therapy” can be used, which relies on rehabilitation and training of the brain to recognize words, speak and write.