Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – The family of the international American star Bruce Willis announced on Wednesday that he is away from acting for a period of time due to a brain disorder known as aphasia (aphasia), which “affects his cognitive abilities.”
His daughter, Rumer Willis, wrote on social media: “As a result, following great thought, Bruce is stepping away from a career that means so much to him.”
You may not have heard of aphasia, but this brain disorder is “more common than Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, and muscular dystrophy,” and affects regarding two million Americans, according to the National Aphasia Association. In fact, regarding 180,000 people are diagnosed with the disease annually, according to the association.
devastating effect
Aphasia is a devastating condition in which the patient loses the ability to communicate, finds it difficult to write, speak, and even understand what others are saying.
The American Language Listening and Speech Association (ASHA) states that people with this condition may have difficulty finding words, use words out of context, talk erratically, or say short or incomplete sentences. They can also make up meaningless words and use them in their speech or writing.
The process of communicating through writing can be riddled with grammatical errors and quick sentences. According to the association, a person with aphasia may also have problems copying letters and words accurately.
The association also pointed out that this disease may affect the patient’s ability to understand others. People with aphasia may not understand spoken or written sentences, or they may need extra time to absorb and understand what is being said or read. They may lose the ability to visually recognize words or speak written words. It may also be difficult for people with this disease to follow someone who is speaking quickly, or to understand complex sentences and concepts.
The effect of aphasia varies from person to person, depending on the extent and location of the brain damage. Some people lose their ability to find or just repeat words and phrases, but they can still speak and understand. This is called ‘fluency’ aphasia, compared to ‘loss of fluency’ aphasia for those who are severely affected.
Causes and treatment
Aphasia is caused by damage to the language areas of the brain, and is often caused by traumatic brain injury, infection, brain tumor or a degenerative disease such as dementia, according to the association.
However, stroke is the most prominent cause of this condition. Between 25% and 40% of stroke survivors develop aphasia, according to the National Aphasia Association, and the elderly are most likely to develop the disease.
Treatment focuses on the person’s symptoms. For those with milder aphasia, treatment can be restorative, with speech therapy to retrain the brain to recognize words, speak and write.
As for people with degenerative disease, they are expected to suffer more regression, and health professionals in this case often focus on providing compensatory assistance in the form of pictures and large print to help the person communicate.
The National Aphasia Association stated that it is difficult to fully recover from aphasia if symptoms of the disease persist for more than two or three months following the stroke, and added that “some people continue to improve over years and even decades.”