Non-primary progressive language impairment in neurodegenerative conditions: protocol for a scoping review

Abstract

Background Progressive language difficulties arise in many neurodegenerative conditions, causing significant impact upon patients and families. This occurs most obviously in primary progressive aphasia (PPA) but can also occur within other forms of progressive disease. In these cases, language decline may be significant, but as they are not the presenting or dominant symptom, may be overlooked in favour of more prominent cognitive, behaviour or motor deficits. To date, there has been no systematic investigation into non-primary progressive aphasia. This scoping review aims to describe the currently reported language impairments found in non-language-led dementias and identify their clinical relevance, defined as the impact on everyday living. It also seeks to identify the reported interventions for language impairment in this patient group to-date. Method We will conduct a scoping review of published studies that have assessed and/or treated aphasia in people diagnosed with a neurodegenerative condition other than primary progressive aphasia. The systematic search will include the electronic databases PubMed, MEDLINE, OVID-EMBASE, PsycINFO, and speechBITE, using search terms for specific non-language-led dementia subtypes. Findings will be mapped and described according to the type of language difficulties identified and rehabilitation approaches employed. Intervention studies will be evaluated for their methodological rigour using validated scales. Discussion This scoping review will provide an overview of the types of aphasia found in neurodegenerative conditions where language dysfunction is not the primary focus. Current treatment approaches (and gaps in the provision of treatment) will be identified.

When it is not primary progressive aphasia: A scoping review of spoken language impairment in other neurodegenerative dementias

“…The specific electronic search strategy can be found in the study protocol published by Savage et al 13 . The search for PubMed comprised the following terms: (Early‐onset Alzheimer's disease OR early onset Alzheimer's disease OR young‐onset Alzheimer's disease OR young onset Alzheimer's disease OR Parkinson* dementia OR Parkinson* disease dementia OR dementia with Lewy bodies OR Lewy body dementia OR Posterior Cortical Atrophy OR frontotemporal dementia OR Pick's disease OR Progressive Supranuclear Palsy OR Cortico‐basal Syndrome OR cortico‐basal degeneration OR corticobasal degeneration OR motor neuron disease OR FTD‐MND OR MND‐FTD OR ALS‐FTD OR FTD‐ALS) AND (language impairment OR communication disorder OR aphasia).…”

“…A protocol of this scoping review can be found in a previous publication 13 . The protocol followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐analysis Protocols (PRISMA)‐ScR guidelines 14,15 .…”

“…A protocol of this scoping review can be found in a previous publication. 13 The protocol followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis Protocols (PRISMA)-ScR guidelines. 14,15 Using the general framework outlined by Arksey and O'Malley, 16 we systematically scoped the literature about language in people with common forms of dementia (excluding PPA): EOAD, PCA, PDD, DLB, bvFTD, FTD+MND (used to denote both FTD-MND and MND-FTD), PSP, and CBS.…”

“…The specific electronic search strategy can be found in the study protocol published by Savage et al 13 The search for PubMed comprised All references retrieved were exported into EndNote software version X9, with duplicates removed via the "Find duplicates" function and through visual inspection of title and author. The screening and selection of the candidate articles was conducted using a multi-level titlefirst method.…”

Case Report: Barely Able to Speak, Can’t Stop Echoing: Echolalic Dynamic Aphasia in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

“…In the same line, the diagnostic criteria for SLDs in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) incorporate non-fluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia and progressive apraxia of speech (Boxer et al, 2017;Höglinger et al, 2017), yet overlooked alternate language phenotypes [e.g., dynamic aphasia (DA) and echolalia], which can also herald the onset of PSP (Ghika et al, 1995;Esmonde et al, 1996;Della Sala and Spinnler, 1998;Robinson et al, 2006Robinson et al, , 2015Rohrer et al, 2010;Perez et al, 2013;Fernández-Pajarín et al, 2015;Magdalinou et al, 2018). Therefore, it is essential to further delineate the broad spectrum of SLDs in PSP (Catricalà et al, 2019;Peterson et al, 2019) and in other degenerative non-PPA conditions (see Savage et al, 2021). In fact, the language profile of DA (specific deficits in the generation of novel verbal messages) (Luria and Tsvetkova, 1967) in PSP has been clearly delineated (Robinson et al, 2006(Robinson et al, , 2015, yet less well known is its relationship with concurrent echolalia (repetition of what has been heard) (e.g., Della Sala and Spinnler, 1998;Berthier et al, 2018a).…”