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Aphasia: This is the disease that forces Bruce Willis to retire
Until the very end, Bruce Willis had tirelessly made films. One of them is the action strip “Fortress – Hour of Reckoning” (picture), which is scheduled to hit German cinemas in April 2022.
© ©Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection / Picture Alliance
The news caused the next shock in Hollywood. Bruce Willis surprisingly ends his acting career. Not because he wants to, but because he has to. He suffers from aphasia. These are the most important facts about the disease.
Hollywood star Bruce Willis is retiring from the film business. The actor, who made a career as a tough action star with films like ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Armageddon’, will no longer be in front of the camera due to illness. “As a family, we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has some health issues and was recently diagnosed with aphasia, which is affecting his cognitive abilities,” the family said on Instagram on Wednesday. “As a result, and after careful consideration, Bruce is retiring from a career that has meant so much to him.” The news surprised and shocked the industry. Willis had worked tirelessly until the very end. These are the most important facts about the disease that is forcing the 67-year-old to retire.
What is aphasia?
Translated, aphasia means “loss of speech”. The disease is an acquired language disorder that affects the entire language system.
What is the cause of aphasia?
Aphasia is caused by a disease of the brain. In most cases, these are strokes. These make up about 80 percent of all aphasias. But traumatic brain injuries, tumors, cerebral hemorrhages, inflammation and other diseases of the central nervous system can also cause aphasia.
What are the symptoms?
In aphasia, all facets that belong to language are affected – however, the course and severity of the disease vary greatly. With aphasics, the ability to speak and understand, but also the written language, i.e. reading and writing, is impaired. In addition, the ability to communicate is impaired. Some of those affected find it harder to concentrate, their memory and attention are reduced. Aphasics also often suffer from side effects of the disease. These include impairments of motor skills, but also of spatial orientation. In addition, the emotional life can get confused. Important: Other mental abilities are usually not affected by the disease. “Aphasia is a speech disorder, not a thinking disorder,” writes the Federal Association of Aphasics on its website.
What types of aphasia are there?
The most severe form is global aphasia. Those affected can hardly speak or write. They understand little and cannot read either. Characteristic of Broca’s aphasia (also motor aphasia) are slow speech flow and severe word-finding problems. Sounds are omitted or placed in the wrong place in a word. The main symptom of Wernicke’s aphasia is fluent, excessive speech with many wrong or phonetically distorted words. The distortions can occur so frequently that no coherent information is conveyed. The main symptom of amnestic aphasia is word-finding difficulties. Those affected can understand language almost without restrictions, but often have to interrupt their speech because they cannot think of the word they are looking for.
How does aphasia manifest itself?
Aphasia is not just aphasia. The severity of the disease depends on what the damage is, how severe the damage is and which part of the brain is affected. As a rule, aphasia manifests itself multimodally, at least at the beginning, which means that several symptoms appear at the same time. More rarely, however, only one language area is affected. The typical symptoms include, among other things, problems finding words and the flow of speech is sluggish. In addition, terms are used incorrectly and the grammar is no longer applied correctly. Pronunciation can also cause difficulties and become incomprehensible to others.
How is aphasia treated?
Aphasia is only partially treatable. The aim of the therapy is to improve the ability to communicate, to promote intact language areas and to enable a self-determined everyday life. Speech and language therapy is an essential part of this. In most cases, however, this is only part of further rehabilitation measures such as neuropsychological therapy, physiotherapy and ergotherapy.
How many people suffer from such a speech disorder?
According to the Federal Association of Aphasics, more than 100,000 people in Germany are affected by the disease, and around 25,000 new patients are added every year. Aphasics make up one to two per thousand of the German population.
Source: National Association for Aphasia, Federal Association of Aphasics, Mediclin