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Agraphia
Introduction
Agraphia describes an impairment or loss of a previous ability to write. Agraphia can occur in isolation, although it often occurs concurrently with other neurologic deficits such as alexia, apraxia, or hemispatial neglect. Clinically, agraphia can be divided into central agraphia (linguistic or aphasic agraphia) and peripheral agraphia (nonlinguistic or nonaphasic agraphia).[1] To perform the act of writing, an individual produces a series of graphemes to communicate meaningful information. In the English language, graphemes consist of letters of the Latin alphabet. To write properly, one must first know the letters themselves and then understand how to organize letters to form proper words and grammatically correct sentences. Lesions disrupting these processes result in central agraphia.
The individual must then know the set of coordinated movements to draw out letters correctly (praxis), the ability mentally to queue up the correct sequence of letters to make an entire word (motor programming), the visuospatial ability to guide a writing implement on a writing surface, and finally, the motor system to carry out these tasks.[1][2] Impairment of these latter steps involved in the motor planning or motor action of writing leads to peripheral agraphia. Peripheral agraphia is characterized by difficulties in the physical act of writing, eg, forming letters and maintaining consistent letter shapes, sizes, and orientations. Patients with peripheral agraphia may exhibit errors like case substitutions, letter substitutions, and inconsistencies between print and cursive writing.[3][4]
Distinguishing between primary and secondary types of agraphia is essential. Primary agraphia refers to writing impairments caused by lesional insults directly to brain regions involved explicitly in writing. Primary agraphia is typically either an isolated or the predominant deficit in presentation; as such, it should not be attributable to other impairments, whether they be motor, linguistic, or cognitive. Secondary agraphia results from another primary disorder, whether visual (eg, hemianopia, visual agnosia), motor (eg, hemiparesis, tremor, dystonia), attentional (eg, hemispatial neglect), or cognitive dysfunction (eg, dementing diseases).
The distinction between primary and secondary agraphia is clinically vital because treatment approaches differ significantly. Primary agraphia typically requires direct intervention targeting writing processes, whereas secondary agraphia is often addressed by first treating the underlying condition. The distinction also has neuroanatomical significance, as primary agraphia implicates specific writing-related neural circuits, whereas secondary agraphia reflects broader dysfunction across multiple systems.
It must also be noted that the term aphasia is used inconsistently in literature. Aphasia most commonly refers to an acquired impairment of just spoken language, but it is also frequently used in clinical settings to encompass both written and spoken language impairments.[2][5][6][7] This topic uses aphasia to refer to an isolated spoken language impairment. Peripheral agraphia can be viewed as analogous to dysarthria of written language in the sense that dysarthria denotes an impairment in the motor output of verbal language. Furthermore, in central agraphia, there can be a dissociation between written and spoken language ability; in some cases, there is even a difference in the type of aphasia manifested in the same patient, such as verbal nonfluent aphasia accompanied by written fluent aphasia.[8][9] The qualifier term "linguistic" is used in this review to encompass written and spoken language issues.
Agraphia is distinguished from illiteracy, in which the ability to write was never obtained. Dysgraphia typically denotes impaired handwriting as one part of a primary learning disability. It is also sometimes used to denote an incomplete acquired writing impairment and, in this case, is synonymous with agraphia.[10] Paragraphia refers to a specific writing error analogous to paraphasic speech errors. The impairment of typing on a keyboard is known as dystypia (or dystextia in the case of mobile phone use) and often accompanies agraphia. Cases of isolated dystypia or dystextia suggest these may represent distinct impairments.[11]
Central (Linguistic) Agraphia
Central agraphia arises from damage to the central neural processes involved in spelling and writing. Central agraphia impairs the linguistic components of writing, such as the ability to retrieve and manipulate graphemic representations, rather than the motoric execution of writing. Central agraphia manifests in numerous ways, including phonological agraphia, where patients struggle to write non-words, and lexical agraphia, where patients struggle to write irregular words. Central agraphia typically arises from lesions in the left hemisphere, especially the centers for language production in the frontal lobe, language comprehension in the temporal lobe, and connections between them running through the parietal lobe (eg, the arcuate fasciculus). Other areas, eg, parts of the motor cortex, auditory cortex, and visual cortex, also contribute to language processing.
Central agraphia can be further subdivided into phonological agraphia, lexical (surface) agraphia, deep agraphia, and semantic agraphia, reflecting the complexity of the neural processes involved in writing and underscoring the diverse neuroanatomical regions implicated by these disorders.
- Phonological (sound-based) agraphia occurs due to difficulty in impaired phoneme-to-grapheme conversion (sound-to-letter conversion), making it difficult to spell non-words or unfamiliar words. Patients can typically spell familiar words correctly but struggle with phonologically plausible errors when writing non-words based on their sounds. Persons with phonological agraphia typically remain able to spell familiar irregular words such as "subtle" but struggle when ambiguity between spelling and pronunciation obtains, such as between the words "steak" and "beak." Dyscravia is a disorder of phoneme-to-grapheme conversion in which written words are misspelled using proximate sounds, such as substituting a "t" for a "d." Dyscravia is classified as a subtype of phonological agraphia.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][17][19]
- Lexical agraphia AKA surface agraphia causes difficulty spelling irregular words that do not obey standard phonetic rules and thus have atypical spellings (eg, "ghost" or "yacht"). As with phonological agraphia, regular words and non-words are usually spelled correctly.
- Graphemic buffer agraphia describes errors in the sequence and maintenance of letters within words, affecting both regular and irregular words. This condition is often due to a disruption in the short-term storage of graphemic representations.
- Semantic agraphia arises when writing becomes impaired due to a breakdown in semantic memory, disrupting the ability to access and use word meanings during the writing process. This condition often occurs secondary to a progressive loss of semantic knowledge, as can occur in patients with semantic dementia or the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (PPA).
- Deep agraphia is a type of central agraphia where patients substitute words with semantically related ones (eg, writing "dog" instead of "cat"). This condition also involves phonological errors and difficulties with non-words, reflecting impairments in both the lexical-semantic and phonological types of writing.
Peripheral (Nonlinguistic or Nonaphasic) Agraphia
Despite its name, peripheral agraphia is a lesion of the central nervous system, not the peripheral nervous system. The main subtypes of peripheral agraphia include:
- Apraxic agraphia: This condition is haracterized by a disruption in the motor plans required for writing despite intact central spelling processes, patients with apraxic agraphia exhibit hesitant, incomplete, imprecise, or illegible handwriting. Lesions in the parietal and frontal regions, the thalamus, and the cerebellum most frequently account for presentations of apraxic agraphia.[20]
- Allographic agraphia: This type of agraphia is characterized by difficulty in selecting and producing the correct letter shapes (allographs), in allographic agraphia, patients can spell words correctly but struggle with the visual form of letters, often substituting one letter form for another (eg, uppercase for lowercase).
- Graphemic buffer agraphia: This condition is characterized by disruptions in the short-term storage of graphemic representations, patients with this form of peripheral agraphia exhibit increased errors with longer words and have difficulty with both words and nonwords.[21]
- Visuospatial agraphia is writing impairment due to errors of orientation to the writing instrument or surface. One common cause of visuospatial agraphia is hemispatial neglect, where one is unaware of half of the page—most frequently, this manifests with a blank left-hand side of a page. Other features suggesting visuospatial agraphia include errors of word spacing or word grouping and specific letter-writing errors such as incorrectly repeating strokes or even repeatedly writing the same letter multiple times. Letters or words may be superimposed. In these cases, writing errors are attributed to constructional apraxia. Note that constructional apraxia is a visuospatial disorder that does not refer to true apraxia (ie, an error of a skilled motor task) and is not to be confused with apraxic agraphia.[22]
Etiology
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Etiology
The most recognized cause of agraphia is stroke.[23] Though less often considered, agraphia can also arise as a sequela of neurodegenerative disease, traumatic brain injury, central nervous system neoplasms, neurological infections, or epilepsy. The underlying locus and cause often guide the treatment approach and prognosis for agraphia, meaning distinguishing among these multiple and diverse etiologies is essential for appropriate clinical assessment and management.
Stroke produces either central or peripheral agraphia, depending on the locus of the infarct. Lesions in the perisylvian language regions, angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and posterior temporal regions typically produce central agraphia. In contrast, lesions affecting the premotor cortex, primary motor cortex, supplementary motor area, basal ganglia, and cerebellum cause peripheral agraphia.
Cortical neurodegenerative disorders, eg, Alzheimer disease, frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and primary progressive aphasias, typically result in central agraphia. In contrast, conditions like Parkinson disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration, and Huntington disease usually produce peripheral agraphia. Additionally, lesions to the white matter (eg, vascular, demyelinating) or those causing widespread diffuse dysfunction (eg, toxic metabolic states and functional disorders) typically result in peripheral agraphia.
Agraphia can present as a feature of HaNDL syndrome (headache and neurologic deficits with cerebrospinal fluid lymphocytosis), has been described in concert with COVID-19 infection, and reported as a complication of capecitabine chemotherapy resulting in leukoencephalopathy.[24][25][26][27] Numerous results from case reports have described less common etiologies of agraphia, as well, including subcortical lesions, metabolic disturbances, and cerebellar damage, highlighting the complexity of the neural networks involved in writing.[28][29][30][31][32]
Epidemiology
The underlying causes and the population studied strongly influence the epidemiology of agraphia, including its prevalence, risk factors, and demographic variations. Sadly, data on the incidence of acquired neurologic language impairment, including agraphia, is limited, primarily due to widespread underdiagnosis and limited research interest. Stroke remains the most common cause of acquired language impairment.[1] Resultsf form a study in Switzerland found the annual incidence of language impairment due to a first-ever ischemic stroke to be 47 in 100,000 total inhabitants; of these, 30% of those with stroke developed aphasia. This study included patients with agraphia, although the rate of agraphia was not separately specified.[23][33]
Pathophysiology
The pathophysiology of neurologic language impairment, including agraphia, remains incompletely understood. Generally, aphasia is better studied than agraphia and remains the most common model for neurologic language processing. However, several reports have observed a dissociation between written language and verbal language ability, suggesting locations in the brain dedicated to writing.[9][34]
Classical localization methods based on vascular lesions originally identified 2 primary linguistic centers of the brain: Broca area in the dominant inferior frontal gyrus and Wernicke’s area in the dominant superior temporal gyrus. The left hemisphere is the dominant hemisphere in over 95% of right-handed and over 70% of left-handed individuals.[35] Lesions to Broca area typically lead to nonfluent language impairment; Broca area involves linguistic functions, including fluency, phonological processing, grammar processing, and semantic retrieval.[36][37] The posterior cortical language area responsible for word recognition and meaning—where lesions produce nonfluent or Wernicke's aphasia—is spread diffusely across the temporal and parietal lobes.[38] Fluent language impairment, characterized by nonsensical speech and impaired comprehension, is commonly attributed to lesions of the inferior division of the middle cerebral artery.
While classic localization models remain clinically useful and aid in identifying cortical areas crucial in various aspects of language, data increasingly support a network-based language processing model.[39] Functional imaging studies have revealed that language functions are more diffuse than received wisdom might suggest.[40] Indeed, lesions to areas such as the cerebellum, thalamus, or even the nondominant hemisphere can mimic damage to Broca's area or the posterior language regions.[41][42] Similarly, clinical syndromes consistent with pure linguistic agraphia have been documented in the thalamus and internal capsule.[14][17][29][17] Crossed thalamic aphasia involving the right hemisphere has also been observed.[43]
Some areas of the brain are thought to be dedicated to handwriting. The dominant angular gyrus, involved in the abstract conversion of verbal to visual language representations, is one such area. In the dominant middle frontal gyrus, the eponymous structure known as Exner’s area functions as an interface between the abstract representation of words and the motor programming of writing.[44] Recently, the anterior portion of the inferior frontal gyrus has been demonstrated to provide a neural correlate to lexical spelling.[45]
Cases of lexical and phonological agraphia point to separate routes for lexical and phonological centers used for writing.[18] Of note, the graphemes of the English language—the letters of the Latin alphabet—are phonologic in nature, as they represent sounds. Research in agraphia in the Japanese language, which uses morphologic and phonologic alphabets, supports the idea that there are separate morphologic and phonologic pathways for the production of reading and writing.[46][47][48] A case report on agraphia in Arabic, a primarily consonantal language with fewer vowels, suggests differences in the Arabic graphemic output buffer compared to English.[49]
Reiterative agraphia may reflect phenomena of conditions such as catatonia or Tourette syndrome.[50] When this feature reflects perseverative behavior, it is thought to be localized broadly to the frontal or parietal lobe.[51][52] Lesions anywhere in the optic pathway or areas of cortical visual processing can lead to visuospatial agraphia. Neglect, which classically localizes to the nondominant parietal lobe, can also lead to visuospatial agraphia. Functional agraphia is complex and often does not easily localize to any particular structure.
In contrast to central agraphia, peripheral agraphia is much more varied in its pathophysiology and often localizes to multiple areas in the central nervous system. The localization of apraxic agraphia is not standardized and has been most documented with frontal and parietal lobe lesions. However, lesions leading to apraxic agraphia have also been observed in the thalamus and cerebellum.[15][31] Of note, the agraphia that is part of the tetrad of Gerstmann syndrome, which classically implicates the posterior lobule of the dominant parietal lobe, has recently been challenged to represent separate apraxic agraphia involving the neighboring superior parietal gyrus.[53]
Tremors or chorea can cause peripheral agraphia due to lesions in structures modulating motor control, including the basal ganglia or cerebellum. Another peripheral agraphia subtype, micrographia, is characterized by progressively smaller handwriting and is often associated with basal ganglia dysfunction, particularly in conditions like Parkinson disease.[54]
History and Physical
When a patient complains of writing dysfunction, before conducting an examination, the examiner must obtain extensive information about the symptom’s onset, character, and progression to aid in differentiation among the various subtypes of agraphia:
Onset and progression: Here, the examiner distinguishes between an acute onset that most likely heralds a stroke or a more gradual presentation, perhaps suggestive of a neurodegenerative process. Assessing whether the agraphia is stable, improving, or worsening over time is also important.
Associated neurological symptoms: The examiner minimally inquires after the presence of motor deficits like hemiparesis or tremor that could localize as peripheral agraphia and then asks about cognitive symptoms like memory loss or executive dysfunction that could suggest central agraphia. Ataxia and dysarthria should also be ruled out.
Specific writing errors: The examiner seeks information about specific types of writing problems to hone in on whether the agraphia is likely to be central, typified by misspellings or phonological errors, or peripheral, typified by struggles to form letters correctly. Repetitive, perseverative errors are hallmarks of reiterative agraphia, and misplaced letters or words on the page suggest visuospatial agraphia.
Evaluating a patient’s writing ability is fundamental to the comprehensive neurological examination, though it is all too frequently omitted due to time limitations or the examiner’s lack of knowledge. Complete language system assessment necessitates evaluating fluency, comprehension, repetition, naming, reading, and writing. Without a comprehensive language examination, agraphia’s cause and localization cannot be elucidated.
To assess writing in an English-speaking individual, the examiner should provide a writing instrument, a blank sheet of paper (or a writing board), and a flat writing surface. Patients lying in bed should be positioned upright. The examiner should then ask the patient to write a complete and grammatically correct sentence of the examinee’s choice. This can be as simple as asking the patient to "Please write me a sentence," but it can be helpful to offer open-ended prompts such as "What did you do today?" "Why are you here?" or "Tell me something about yourself." The examiner should encourage the patient to make their handwriting clear and legible.
Clinicians should observe the patient’s orientation to the page and writing instrument, followed by noting the general ease and speed of the task. The letters should be relatively uniform in size, spacing, and stroke quality. The examiner should note any errors in writing, including duplication of letter strokes, incorrect placement of spaces, or physical overlapping of words. Writing content should be analyzed for sentence length, word choice, accurate spelling, and correct use of grammatical elements and punctuation. Given the natural variation in individual handwriting, the examiner should compare pre-morbid writing samples if these are available or ask the patient (and anyone who accompanied the patient) if their handwriting appears different than it was previously.
The presence or absence of other neurological exam findings may help include or exclude different etiologies of agraphia. Patients with central agraphia often have concomitant aphasia. There may be a pertinent absence of paresis on manual muscle testing in patients with apraxic agraphia. Ideomotor apraxic agraphia may be accompanied by impaired use of other tools, and there can be deficits in mimicking tools such as a hammer or a toothbrush. Micrographia can be accompanied by cogwheeling rigidity, decrements in fast finger tapping, or other features of Parkinsonism. An intact ability to copy a complex figure, such as the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure test, may help exclude constructional apraxia when assessing apraxic agraphia.[55]
Evaluation
Diagnosis of agraphia typically involves comprehensive neuropsychological and language assessments that specifically evaluate various writing skills. A clinician's bedside examination of agraphia provides the initial characterization of writing dysfunction. Assessment of oral compared to written spelling ability fosters differentiation between central and peripheral agraphia. In equivocal cases, a more extensive evaluation can help further characterize agraphia. Specialized tests such as the Western Aphasia Battery or Boston Diagnostic Aphasia examination conducted by a speech and language pathologist can provide more granularity than a simple bedside clinical assessment. They can aid in tracking the severity of agraphia.[56] A neuropsychologist or psychometrician may also administer these tests as part of an extensive neuropsychological evaluation.
Once agraphia is identified, localization should be clinically correlated to determine the underlying cause of the agraphia and guide further diagnostic workup. Infrequently, history and examination are sufficient to establish a diagnosis, but as a rule, additional investigations will be needed. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) localizes or identifies the lesions causing agraphia, especially if caused by stroke. Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery and diffusion-weighted imaging sequences are useful for detecting acute ischemic changes, bithalamic damage, and internal capsule infarctions; volumetric MRI and neuropsychological testing are instructive in suspected dementia cases. When subcortical white matter lesions are suspected, diffusion tensor imaging can helpfully interrogate white matter tract integrity.[29][57]
Treatment / Management
The correct classification of a patient’s agraphia is paramount to proper treatment, as treatments vary greatly depending on the localization and etiology of the agraphia. Overall, the following aspects of a patient’s agraphia determine expected treatment effectiveness: agraphia subtype, its etiology (eg, stroke, neurodegenerative disease, trauma, other), duration of symptoms (eg, acute, subacute, chronic), concomitant language dysfunction, and cognitive state. The most successful approaches typically involve intensive, individualized therapy beginning as soon as possible after diagnosis, with interdisciplinary collaboration among speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, neurologists, and neuropsychologists.
In general, speech and language therapy (SLT) and occupational therapy form the cornerstones of treatment for both central and peripheral agraphia. A multimodal approach, including therapy, medication, and sometimes surgery, is often required to treat agraphia successfully. For example, a patient with micrographia due to Parkinson disease might require deep brain stimulation, antiparkinsonian medication, occupational therapy, and orthotic devices to address their writing impairment optimally. Treatment paradigms should emphasize the importance of individualized therapy plans, incorporating traditional speech and language therapy and cognitive rehabilitation techniques, as the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association recommends.[58](A1)
In addition to addressing the symptoms of agraphia, it is essential to address the underlying etiology of agraphia to prevent the potential progression of writing impairment. For instance, a patient with a tumor leading to central agraphia should be offered appropriate chemotherapy, radiation, or surgical treatments. Of the various etiologies of central agraphia, the most substantial evidence for effective treatment emerges in the case of central agraphia due to stroke.
SLT is shown to be beneficial for language impairment after stroke, with evidence that high-dose SLT is superior to low-dose SLT for improving writing ability.[6] Results from one small study of 8 patients with alexia and agraphia due to stroke found benefit in targeted task-specific training in reading or writing, suggesting that treatment protocols may benefit from widely targeting a variety of specific writing deficits.[59] The use of speech-to-text assistive technology in stroke patients with both aphasia and agraphia has demonstrated improvement in writing ability.[7] (A1)
Pharmacotherapy may also be supportive in enhancing cognitive function and facilitating rehabilitation. Medications typically used for the symptomatic management of dementias like Alzheimer disease, eg, cholinesterase inhibitors like donepezil and the N-methyl-D-aspartate-receptor antagonist, memantine are supported by American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guidelines and other clinical studies as being among the most effective pharmacotherapies for the treatment of agraphia, particularly in the context of post-stroke aphasia.[60] Limited evidence suggests that piracetam may be helpful in agraphia in the acute setting after a stroke.[61] However, the aforementioned guidelines specifically advise that piracetam does not appear to be beneficial for aphasia, and more extensive studies are needed before its routine use can be recommended.(A1)
Perhaps best suited to the adjunctive treatment of poststroke agraphia, neuromodulatory techniques such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are recent developments in agraphia treatment. In rTMS, magnetic pulses are applied to specific brain regions to modulate neural activity. Study resutls suggest that contralaterally applied rTMS inhibits maladaptive neural activity, improving writing, among other language functions.[62] In tDCS, low-voltage electrical current applied to the scalp modulates neuronal excitability and facilitates neuroplasticity, enhancing the effects of SLT.[63] Finally, neurofeedback with functional MRI (fMRI) involves using real-time brain activity feedback to help patients learn to modulate their own neural activity. This approach remains primarily experimental, but it has demonstrated potential by targeting specific language processing regions to ameliorate language functions.[62](B3)
Given the broad mechanisms of peripheral agraphia, treatment for peripheral agraphia depends on its subtype. For instance, due to hemispatial neglect, visuospatial agraphia may benefit from prism lenses.[64] Writer cramp is often amenable to local botulinum toxin injection.[65] Orthotic devices, occupational therapy, and relaxation techniques may also help with writer’s cramp symptoms.[66](A1)
Differential Diagnosis
For a complex and multimodal condition like agraphia, generating the differential diagnosis necessitates localizing the lesion with maximal neuroanatomic precision, determining the primacy of linguistic or motoric deficit, and reviewing the plethora of conditions, neurological, vascular, structural, metabolic, demyelinating, or neoplastic, that could underlie the deficit. Agraphia is not a single entity but a neurologic symptom with many etiologies. Proper diagnosis first requires a comprehensive neurological examination, typically followed by any combination of neuropsychological testing, neuroimaging (MRI or functional imaging), and sometimes lumbar puncture or blood tests, depending on the suspected underlying cause.
As already reviewed, stroke and neurodegenerative disease commonly cause agraphia. Additionally, traumatic brain injury to the brain’s language centers can result in agraphia,[67] as can central nervous system neoplasms in the dominant hemisphere (primarily through direct compression of or infiltration into language areas),[68] or demyelinating lesions of MS localizing to language regions.[69]
In its broadest construction, the differential for agraphia also includes illiteracy, in which the ability to write was never acquired. Agraphia should also be distinguished from abulia, representing a generalized hypofunction and motivational deficit. Finally, consideration of potentially dangerous conditions is imperative. Among the crucially unmissable conditions, one must number intracerebral hemorrhage,[70] brain abscess,[71] and encephalitis.[72]
Prognosis
The prognosis of agraphia is highly variable and depends on its etiology. Language impairment after a stroke usually follows a period of recovery, peaking around three months, followed by an eventual plateau in language ability.[2][73] In contrast, central agraphia due to neurodegenerative disease is expected to worsen progressively. Peripheral agraphia comprises a wide variety of etiologies that carry different prognoses.
In severe agraphia, patients rarely recover to pre-injury writing abilities, but they nonetheless can improve their functional writing skills significantly with appropriate rehabilitation. Even if spontaneous recovery is minimal, patients often can develop effective alternative communication strategies. In most cases, the most significant improvement occurs in the initial 3 to 6 months post-onset for acute causes, yet with sustained and consistent therapy, some patients continue to realize gains for as much as several years. Plateaus in functional recovery occur commonly but rarely represent the end of improvement. Finally, most patients develop compensatory strategies over time and can meaningfully improve their functional writing ability despite persisting impairment.
Favorable prognostic factors include peripheral rather than central agraphia, isolated rather than global patterns, small lesions, and lesions in the non-dominant hemisphere. Demographically, younger age, higher levels of premorbid literacy (sometimes measured as education), fewer comorbidities, and high degrees of engagement and motivation presage better outcomes. Finally, earlier treatment onset followed by sustained and intense therapy with access to multimodal rehabilitation services improves outcomes.
Complications
Complications of agraphia include issues with community integration, where functional communication is vital to independent daily life. Language impairments can be frustrating for patients, and in stroke, they are also associated with depression.[74] As agraphia is not a specific disease, the complications of the underlying etiology should be considered.
Consultations
The following consultations are recommended for this condition:
Neurology: For comprehensive evaluation and management, a neurological consult is recommended.
Neurosurgery: If a structural lesion such as a glioma is identified, consultation for surgical intervention is imperative.
Deterrence and Patient Education
For agraphia, patient education should be tailored according to the underlying cause, whether stroke, focal brain lesion, or neurodegenerative disease, and it preferably should include compensatory strategies in combination with direct therapeutic interventions. Patients and families should be educated explicitly about the presence and features of acquired language impairment. In patients with agraphia who are otherwise cognitively intact, isolated language impairment can often be mistaken for global cognitive impairment, and patients, along with their loved ones, should be so informed. Patients should be provided with communication strategies individualized to the specific form and extent of their impairment. Even with reading language deficits, written educational material can still periodically be provided to patients with language impairment.[75]
Condition-specific patient education should be provided whenever possible. In cases of acute agraphia, such as that seen poststroke, information about early intervention (emphasizing its crucial importance), the advantages offered by intensive multimodal therapy, and the availability of communication devices to augment or provide alternatives to typical communication.[60] Even in the setting of neurodegenerative disease, patients should be informed that lexical treatments can improve written skills in particular, plus communication skills more generally.[76]
Pearls and Other Issues
Though the descriptive language used does not necessarily make this clear, peripheral vertigo is a lesion of the central nervous system, not a lesion of the peripheral nervous system. As with the various classifications for aphasia, there are many classification schemas to categorize agraphia. One such clinical neurological schema is used in this article. However, neuropsychological or psycholinguistic schemas to classify agraphia are also commonly used.[1][2] Similarly, definitions and terminology in the study of neurologic language impairment can frequently be ambiguous or contradictory, with certain trends appearing in the literature over time. This is likely due partly to an understanding of agraphia that has evolved alongside technological advances.[77]
In assessing agraphia, it is essential to consider a patient's education level. Illiteracy, in which written ability is never acquired, must be distinguished from agraphia. Literacy rates may vary depending on the practice setting (eg, rural versus urban, general versus specialty practice, low versus high-income countries, inter alia. The patient's primary language should be considered, especially when it differs from the examiner's. In-person or video-based professional language interpretation may be necessary for adequate assessment. In our increasingly digitized world, the investigation of typing and texting—warrants consideration for inclusion in the standard clinical language assessment.[11]
Enhancing Healthcare Team Outcomes
Providing patient-centered care for individuals with agraphia requires a collaborative effort among healthcare professionals, including physicians (neurologists, neurosurgeons, physiatrists), neuropsychologists, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, advanced practice practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, and others. First and foremost, clinicians of any type must possess the necessary clinical skills and expertise when diagnosing, evaluating, and treating this condition. This includes proficiency in ascertaining relevant aspects of the history and the comprehensive neurological examination, interpreting radiological findings, recognizing potential complications, and understanding the nuances of managing the array of agraphia subtypes, including functional agraphia. Moreover, a strategic approach involving evidence-based guidelines and individualized care plans tailored to each patient's unique circumstances is vital.
Language impairments can be frustrating for patients. Allowing ample time to express themselves and ensure clear and unambiguous communication is essential. In stroke, language impairments are associated with depression and poorer quality of life. As such, the mental health of language-impaired patients should also be appropriately evaluated and addressed. Good communication among interprofessional team members is vital to success in an interprofessional setting, as in rehabilitation. Agraphia and its features can be subtle, and relaying specific clinical findings directly to therapists can be an immeasurable boon for guiding effective speech and occupational therapy.
Rehabilitation for agraphia, as with other forms of disability, should be tailored to the patient’s capacity and goals. The need for writing as a skill varies among patients, but it has increased in importance in society as part of the digital revolution. As communication with language is inherently a social activity, it is also valuable, whenever possible, to engage the family members of patients with agraphia to help determine therapy goals.[78]
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