New hope for patients with primary progressive aphasia
Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a unique language disorder that involves struggles with incorrect word substitutions, mispronounced words and/or difficulty understanding simple words and forgetting names of familiar objects and people. With PPA, language function declines before the memory systems, which is the opposite of Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Regina Jokel, a speech-language pathologist at Baycrest's Sam and Ida Ross Memory Clinic and a clinician-scientist with the Rotman Research Institute (RRI), has developed the first structured group intervention for PPA patients and their caregivers. This intervention could also help treat patients with other communication problems, such as mild cognitive impairment (a condition that is likely to develop into Alzheimer's ). The results of her pilot program were published in the Journal of Communication Disorders on April 14, 2017. "This research aims to address the needs of one of the most underserviced populatio...