Objective

Anomia is the second most common disorder after episodic memory loss in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Our objective was to develop a speech therapy protocol for patients with Alzheimer’s disease (Mini-Mental State Examination or MMSE ≥ 15) and suffering from a lack of words, in order to improve access to words.

Material/patients and methods

We stimulated the three stages in the men:

– stimulation of lexical selection involved working on the multiple meanings of a word, searching for the relevant and specific features of a word in order to make a guess, and bringing to mind a target word from specific features;

– stimulation of morphological encoding involved extracting the meaning of a morpheme by comparing two words, one of which is derived from the other, and then identifying the meaning of an affix by slipping it into a sentence;

– phonological encoding was stimulated by the isolation of the initial two-syllable words and merging them to form a third word.

A speech therapist assessed lexical naming and MMS score before and after administration of the rehabilitation protocol to patients who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Results

Fourteen patients were included and completed the 20 training sessions of 30 min each, held once or twice a week with their speech therapist. After the rehabilitation protocol, 12 out of the 14 patients were better at naming words after visual confrontation (pictures) and reproducing words after auditory confrontation. A decline was noted in every cognitive aspect in 9 patients. Eight out of these 9 patients maintained or improved their lexical access.

Discussion–conclusion

Although there was a decline in cognitive abilities in our study population, systematic activation of the lexicon helped maintain or improve linguistic aspects of language. These aspects are essential to oral communication from an ecological and psychosocial standpoint.