Speech and Language Disorders in Neurodegenerative Diseases – Alzheimer’s Dementia and Primary Progressive Aphasia – Two Case Studies

Neurodegenerativne bolesti su u suvremenom svijetu u porastu, a broj oboljelih od demencija raste i u Republici Hrvatskoj. Kroz prikaz slučaja demencije Alzheimerovog tipa te primarne progresivne afazije i usporedbu oba slučaja dobila se preliminarna slika o stanju govornojezičnih sposobnosti sudionica istraživanja. Ispitale su se funkcije poput razumijevanja, artikulacije, čitanja, pisanja, verbalne fluentnosti (fonološke i semantičke), sposobnosti imenovanja te semantičko i kratkoročno pamćenje. Osnovna motivacija rada je uvid u govornojezične sposobnosti i razumijevanje vrsta poteškoća s kojima se susreću osobe oboljele od Alzheimerove demencije i primarne progresivne afazije te osmišljavanje terapijskih postupaka u rehabilitacijskoj intervenciji u tretmanu govorno-jezičnih poteškoća. Time će se bolesnicima pružiti dodatan način rehabilitacije te produžiti kvaliteta komunikacije sa obitelji i društvom.There has been noted a sharp rise in neurodegenerative diseases in the world recently. Nonetheless, the incidences of patients with dementia has been increesing in Croatia, as well. Through a case study of Alzheimer's dementia (AD) and primary progressive aphasia (PPA), and a comparis of both cases, a preliminary picture of the state of speech-language ability of the participant was obtained. Functions or skills such as understanding, articulation, reading, writing, verbal fluency (phonological and semantic), confrontational naming, semantic and short-term memory were studied. The basic motivation of the work is to gain insight into speech-language skills as well as the development of therapeutic interventions in the treatment of speech-language difficulties caused by the aforementioned diseases. This will provide patients with an additional method of rehabilitation and extend the quality of communication with the family and society