{"id":8339,"date":"2019-07-18T05:56:58","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T05:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplyhealth.today\/?p=8339"},"modified":"2021-04-21T13:41:44","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T13:41:44","slug":"15-things-to-know-about-anomia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplyhealth.today\/15-things-to-know-about-anomia\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Things to Know About Anomia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Anomia is a mild to a moderate, fluent type of aphasia where affected individuals have significant word finding and retrieval failures, where they cannot express the words they want to say. It is particularly the nouns and verbs that are most affected by this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In basic terms, anomia is a clear deficit of expressive language in one or more of its recognized forms. The most obstructive, easily diagnosable and pervasive deficit in the aphasias is the condition known as anomia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least some level of anomia is seen in every single one of the aphasias and individuals with aphasia who display anomia may be able to describe an object in detail, even use handing gestures to demonstrate how the object might be used, however, they are still unable to find the appropriate word to name the object or action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This list identifies 8 things that you should know about anomia and explores them in a little more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Word selection anomia <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This type of anomia <\/a>occurs on the occasion that the affected person or patient knows how to use an object and can even correctly select the specific target object from a group of objects, but they are still unable to name the object explicitly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some patients or people affected with word selection anomia may display selective impairment in naming particular types of sets of related and similar objects, such as categories like animals or colors for instance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of these subtypes, known as color anomia, the patient or affected person is able to successfully and accurately distinguish between colors but is still unable to identify the colors by name or to name the color of any given object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/sup>These patients are able to separate colors into different categories, but they still find themselves unable to name them. Whilst this type of anomia is clearly frustrating, it is possible for a person to lead a decent quality of life with the correct support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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2. Semantic anomia <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Semantic anomia<\/a> refers to a disorder in which the meaning of certain words becomes lost to the patients or the people affected by it. In patients or affected people with the type of anomia called semantic anomia, this apparent naming issue or naming deficit is nearly always accompanied by another deficit, a recognition deficit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this, unlike patients with word selection anomia, patients or people affected with semantic anomia are completely unable to select the correct object from a larger group of similar or completely different objects, even when they have been provided with the actual name of the target object prior to the task being given. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This type of anomia is more problematic than the first one discussed here, as the connections between objects and language become even more blurred and the confusion is stepped up a level. Semantic anomia is a progression to word selection anomia in a lot of instances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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3. Disconnection anomia <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This type of anomia actually results from the complete or partial severing of the vital connections between sensory and language cortices <\/a>in the brain. Patients or people blighted with disconnection anomia are prone to exhibiting what is known as modality-specific anomia, where the anomia is limited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This particular type of anomia is limited to a specific sensory modality, with the hearing being a specific example of one such modality. To put this into some context, a patient who is more than capable of naming a target object when it is presented to them through the medium of certain sensory modalities such as audition or touch may still be unable to name the same object when the object is presented in a different way, for instance when it is presented visually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a further stage of complication that a person with anomia can expect to face and is perhaps best considered as another level up from semantic anomia, as described above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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4. Causes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are several known causes of anomia, as well as some lesser-explored theories about the types of things that can cause the condition. Anomia is known to be genetic in some cases or caused by damage to various parts of the left side of the brain<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some examples of this damage could be seen following a serious head injury, a stroke or even following the removal or shrinkage of a brain tumor. Whilst the main causes are not fully understood or even specifically known, many researchers and investigations have found common factors that contribute to anomic aphasia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People with damage to the left side of the brain, for instance, are far more likely to have anomic aphasia than people with damage to other parts of the brain. The main trouble that people encounter when recovering from a brain injury, is that the problems that can linger tend to be life long, even after the immediate threat to life is taken care of and recovery is seemingly complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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5. Management<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There is no known method that is currently available to completely cure someone of anomic aphasia<\/a>. This said, there are plenty of treatments out there that can help improve word-finding skills and other symptoms of anomia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst it is true that a person with anomia may find remembering and naming many types of words to be extremely difficult, many studies have shown that specific and targeted treatment for things like object words, otherwise known as nouns, have shown real promise in terms of rehabilitation outlook and further research. <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The treatment of anomia includes things like visual aids, such as pictures, and also the requirement for the patient to be asked to identify the thing they are trying to talk about, with hand signals or another language. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the occasion where that is not possible, the patient may then be shown the same picture, only this time it might be surrounded by words associated with the target word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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6. Diagnosis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The optimal and most researched method of determining if anomic aphasia has developed is found by the conduction of verbal and imaging tests. This vital combination of testing styles seems to be the most effective way of doing things since either test done in isolation has the potential to provide false positives or false negatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put this into context, the verbal test looks to see if a speech disorder presents and if it does, whether or not this problem is in speech production or incomprehension. It can be an important distinction to make, but anomia can only be diagnosed or not diagnosed based on the combination of the two tests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the mental fragility of the people suspected of having anemia<\/a>, due to their existing underlying conditions or current medical and physical state, these tests can be hard to conduct in the way that all doctors and testers would like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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7. Success Stories<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The vast majority of success stories to do with the recovery from the condition of anomia in its various forms, tend to come from speech and language therapists who have worked with patients suffering from the condition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In older people, or those suffering from long term neurological disorders<\/a>, it is unlikely that the situation will see much improvement over time, only a slowing of the demise and worsening of the condition. For younger people though, or those affected by anomia following some kind of serious head trauma or injury, there are a few examples of success stories to do with the way a person has recovered from their problems and regained or improved certain aspects of their communication and language skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no known cure, but things like speech and language therapy, combined with targeted support to enable independence, can lead to a person being able to take more of an active and full role in the day to day life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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8. Outlook<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Generally, the outlook for people living with anomia is one where they can expect a steady worsening of the condition, This is most easily observed in dementia patients, who develop anomia, as their language comprehension and production becomes so confused that they struggle to make themselves understood and find similar difficulties in understanding anything that might be said to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of these 8 things to know about anomia can be looked at in two ways, either with the glass half full or the glass half empty. There isn’t a lot that can be done about the condition, but small victories and further research mean that there is perhaps a chink of light at the end of the road in terms of a longer-term outlook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, though, a person diagnosed with anomia would find it hard to have many reasons to be positive, as a brain injury<\/a> or neurological disorder can be extremely hard for someone to come to terms with.
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