How long does someone live with primary progressive aphasia?
People who have the disease typically live about 3-12 years after they are originally diagnosed. In some people, difficulty with language remains the primary symptom, while others may develop additional problems including cognitive or behavioral changes or difficulty coordinating movements.
What is primary progressive aphasia semantic dementia?
People with semantic variant (svPPA) have increasing trouble understanding the meaning of words, finding words or naming people and objects. As time goes on, people with svPPA begin to use more general names for specific things.
What does primary progressive aphasia mean?
Primary progressive aphasia (uh-FAY-zhuh) is a rare nervous system (neurological) syndrome that affects your ability to communicate. People who have it can have trouble expressing their thoughts and understanding or finding words. Symptoms begin gradually, often before age 65, and worsen over time.
Is Primary Progressive Aphasia Alzheimer’s?
PPA is not Alzheimer’s disease. Most people with PPA maintain ability to take care of themselves, pursue hobbies, and, in some instances, remain employed.
Is primary progressive aphasia a terminal illness?
As with other frontotemporal dementias, the long-term prognosis is limited. The typical life expectancy from onset of the disease is 3 to 12 years. 9 Often, complications from PPA, such as swallowing difficulties, often lead to the eventual decline.
Is PPA genetic?
In the vast majority of individuals, PPA is not genetic. However, in a small number of families, PPA can be caused by hereditary forms of FTLD. The most common gene implicated in these families is the progranulin gene (GRN).
What are the stages of PPA?
In our practice and clinical research, we find it helpful to conceptualize PPA within the same general framework as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related neurodegenerative disorders, which are thought of as progressing in three clinical phases with respect to global function: asymptomatic/preclinical, mildly symptomatic …
How is primary progressive aphasia treated?
There are no treatments or cures for primary progressive aphasia (PPA). A speech-language pathologist may help patients with early stage PPA learn new communication strategies. Some examples include using non-verbal communication techniques such as gesturing or pointing to cards with words, pictures or drawings.
Is primary progressive aphasia fluent?
Semantic variant primary progressive aphasia. People with this subtype lose the meaning of words (comprehension). A person with this type of PPA can speak fluently, but things they say might not make sense, and they might have trouble understanding what others are saying.
How fast does PPA progress?
Although it is often said that the course of the illness progresses over approximately 7–10 years from diagnosis to death, recent studies suggest that some forms of PPA may be slowly progressive for 12 or more years (Hodges et al. 2010), with reports of up to 20 years depending on how early a diagnosis is made.
What causes death in PPA patients?
Although PPA itself is a life-shortening condition, people with PPA will often be affected by another illness, such as pneumonia. This is because PPA affects how the body copes with infection and with other physical problems. Pneumonia is the cause of death in up to two thirds of people with a dementia.
Can PPA be misdiagnosed?
Discussion. We present these cases to raise awareness of PPA. While it is a truism that ‘common things are common’, it is also the case that rare disorders do occur and may be missed if the diagnosis is not considered.