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Medication For Severe Trauma?

Posted on Tue, 11 Mar 2014

Question: Hello. I'm writing on behalf of my 82 year old mother. She's had a progressively deteriorating ability to speak..struggling find the right words. Exhaustive tests have been done (including a brain MRI) which have all come back negative for anything like stroke, tumor or other brain disease. She is in otherwise excellent health. After doing some research online, I stumbled upon Aphasia (Expressive or Anomic seem to fit the bill). I believe this is what my Mom has. I'm interested to see if I'm on the right path here. Although my mom never had a stroke, she has been through severe trauma over the past few years over the death of my Dad. Any thoughts?

Answered by Dr. Sudhir Kumar (6 hours later)

Brief Answer: I agree with your suspicion. Detailed Answer: Hi, Thank you for posting your query. I agree with your suspicion that your mother could be suffering from a condition known as primary progressive aphasia. In this condition, the person loses ability to comprehend and speak and the condition continues to deteriorate over time. This is a degenerative process, similar to Alzheimer's disease, but unlike Alzheimer's disease, other symptoms of dementia are not seen (such as memory impairment, ability to take self care, finding way at home or outside calculation ability, etc). PET (positron emission tomography) may help in finding out the areas of brain affected, as PET scan shows the function of brain. This would help in confirming the diagnosis to a certain extent. Unfortunately, there are no medications to cure it or stop the progression. Speech therapy may help partly. I hope it helps. Please get back if you have any follow up queries. Best wishes, Dr Sudhir XXXXXXX MD DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar