Although language rehabilitation in patients with primary progressive aphasia
(PPA) is recommended, rehabilitation studies in this clinical syndrome are
scarce. Specifically, in relation to semantic dementia (SD), few studies have
shown the possibility of lexical relearning.ObjectiveTo analyze the effectiveness of rehabilitation for lexical reacquisition in
SD.MethodsThree SD patients were submitted to training for lexical reacquisition based
on principles of errorless learning. Comparisons between naming performance
of treated items (pre and post-training) and non-treated items of the Boston
Naming Test (BNT) were made.ResultsAll patients improved their performance in naming treated words after
intervention. However, decline in performance in naming of non-treated items
was observed. Case 1 named zero items at baseline while her performance
post-training was 29.4% correct responses without cueing, and 90.7% correct
with and without cueing. Case 2 named 6.9% of items correctly at baseline
and his performance in post-training was 52.9% without cueing and 87.3%,
with and without cueing. Case 3 named zero items at baseline and his
performance in post-training was 100% correct responses without cueing.
Considering the performance in naming the non-treated items of the BNT, the
percentages of correct responses in the first evaluation and in the
re-evaluation, respectively were: 16.7% and 8.3% (case 1; 14
month-interval); 26.7% and 11.6% (case 2; 18 month-interval) and 11.6% and
8.3% (case 3; 6 month-interval).ConclusionsThe reacquisition of lost vocabulary may be possible in SD despite
progressive semantic deterioration.