Speech and language therapy approaches to managing primary progressive aphasia

Anna Volkmer; Emily Rogalski; Maya Henry; Cathleen Taylor-Rubin; Leanne Ruggero; Rebecca Khayum; Jackie Kindell; Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini; Jason D Warren; Jonathan D Rohrer

doi:10.1136/practneurol-2018-001921

Speech and language therapy approaches to managing primary progressive aphasia

Pract Neurol. 2020 Apr;20(2):154-161. doi: 10.1136/practneurol-2018-001921. Epub 2019 Jul 29.

Authors

Anna Volkmer¹, Emily Rogalski^{2

3}, Maya Henry⁴, Cathleen Taylor-Rubin^{5

6}, Leanne Ruggero⁵, Rebecca Khayum², Jackie Kindell⁷, Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini^{8

9}, Jason D Warren¹⁰, Jonathan D Rohrer¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK.
² Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease, Northwestern University (NU) Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
³ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University (NU) Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
⁴ Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.
⁵ Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁶ Speech Pathology Department, War Memorial Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁷ Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
⁸ Department of Neurology, Memory and Aging Center, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁹ Dyslexia Center, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
¹⁰ Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK.
¹¹ Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK [email protected].

Abstract

The term primary progressive aphasia (PPA) describes a group of neurodegenerative disorders with predominant speech and language dysfunction as their main feature. There are three main variants - the semantic variant, the nonfluent or agrammatic variant and the logopenic variant - each with specific linguistic deficits and different neuroanatomical involvement. There are currently no curative treatments or symptomatic pharmacological therapies. However, speech and language therapists have developed several impairment-based interventions and compensatory strategies for use in the clinic. Unfortunately, multiple barriers still need to be overcome to improve access to care for people with PPA, including increasing awareness among referring clinicians, improving training of speech and language therapists and developing evidence-based guidelines for therapeutic interventions. This review highlights this inequity and the reasons why neurologists should refer people with PPA to speech and language therapists.

Keywords: aphasia; frontotemporal dementia; primary progressive aphasia; speech therapy.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Aphasia, Primary Progressive / diagnostic imaging*
Aphasia, Primary Progressive / therapy*
Disease Management*
Humans
Language Therapy / methods*
Language Therapy / trends
Speech Therapy / methods*
Speech Therapy / trends

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding