An instrument to quickly and reliably classify aphasic patients' symptoms in syndromes based on cognitive assessments
Psychol. neurosci. (Impr.)
; 2(2): 157-162, Dec. 2009. graf, tab
Article
in En
| LILACS
| ID: lil-574093
Responsible library:
BR85.1
ABSTRACT
The classification of aphasic patients' symptoms into a syndrome is a crucial procedure that favours and simplifies the communication among the clinicians involved in patient treatment and follow-up. Nevertheless, the aphasic population usually presents a very heterogeneous symptomatology; consequently, classical syndromes do not offer a good basis to plan their rehabilitation relying on their specific language impairments. Current rehabilitation strategies frequently require the identification of specific cognitive abilities affected. This is why it is common in clinical practice to assess aphasic patients with a syndromic protocol in order to classify them as well as a cognitive battery to plan their rehabilitation. The aim of the present article is to present a quick and reliable tool (i.e., a syndromic classification sheet) to help clinicians classify their clients' symptomatology in a syndrome by means of only one cognitive neuropsychological assessment. Two groups of speech therapists (5 experienced and 5 inexperienced) were asked to classify 5 aphasic patients from a syndromic classification sheet and their assessment protocols. Results indicate an acceptable inter-rater agreement for the experienced group but not for the inexperienced one. In conclusion, the classification sheet turned out to be a useful and reliable tool to classify aphasic patients in a given syndrome and by means of only some subtests from a cognitive assessment battery, provided that clinicians had some years of experience. In addition, this new instrument enables language clinicians to shorten the assessment of their aphasic clients.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
LILACS
Main subject:
Aphasia
/
Cognition
/
Neuropsychological Tests
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Guideline
Language:
En
Journal:
Psychol. neurosci. (Impr.)
Journal subject:
NEUROLOGIA
/
PSICOLOGIA
Year:
2009
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Argentina
/
Canada
Country of publication:
Brazil