BLOGGER TEMPLATES - TWITTER BACKGROUNDS »

Saturday, April 24, 2010

ADHD drug may help individuals with aphasia regain language abilities

Washington, Feb 18 (ANI): A medication commonly prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can also treat aphasia – a condition where a person loses his ability to recall and produce common words.

Aphasia is caused by lesions to the language centers of the brain. These lesions are often due to stroke or brain injury, but can also be the result of a brain tumour or progressive disease such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.

Types of aphasia can range from a patient having difficulty finding and producing a word to a patient having no ability at all to speak or understand language.

While most aphasia patients benefit from behavioral therapy to regain their language skills, a new area of treatment is opening up which looks at certain drugs to help augment the therapy.

“The standard of care for patients with aphasia has always been and will always be speech/language therapy, but a new area is opening up that looks at what drugs can be used in combination with therapy to enhance recovery from brain damage and help the brain repair itself,” said Gerry Stefanatos, D.Phil., an associate professor of communication sciences and disorders in the College of Health Professions. Next.....

2 comments:

Kimberly said...

Aphasia is one of the most terrible diseases for me. It can make it hard for you to read, write and say what you mean to say. It is most common in adults who have had a stroke. Te good news is that Some people recover from aphasia without treatment. Most, however, need language therapy as soon as possible. It is good that the drug of ADHD can help this condition too. If somebody has aphasia or ADHD at college they may need to take this drug very soon, to avoid any further problems.
Kim

Kimberly said...

hfgdggf