Primary Progressive Aphasia

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative disease that mainly affects language, ranging from subtle impairment to total incapacity to communicate.

During the early stages of the disease, other cognitive functions such as memory and calculation abilities remain well preserved, but may decline over time.

How to recognize it?

• PPA should be suspected in anyone who shows progressive language difficulties.
• In their everyday life, people suffering from PPA show difficulty properly communicating their needs, for example, when speaking on the phone or ordering at a restaurant. Therefore, they tend to stand back and isolate themselves because of their language difficulties.
• Across the province of Quebec, PPA cases represent 3 people out of every 100 000 and they often present between the ages of 55 and 65.

There are three main variants of PPA:

• Nonfluent/Agrammatic PPA: slowed speech and difficulty getting words out

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• Logopenic PPA: difficulty finding the right word

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• Semantic PPA: a loss of meaning of words and general knowledge

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• There is also a very rare form of communication disorder that specifically affects speech: the Primary Progressive Apraxia of Speech.

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