J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1989; 1:40-45
Copyright © 1989 by American Neuropsychiatric Association
Delusions and mood disorders in patients with chronic aphasia
S Signer, JL Cummings and DF Benson
Department of Psychiatry, Royal Ottawa Hospital, Canada.
Sixty-one inpatients manifesting chronic aphasic syndromes were reviewed.
Most aphasic patients with behavioral abnormalities sufficiently severe to
require hospitalization had posterior hemispheric lesions and fluent
disorders. Thirty-eight (62%) had fluent aphasia, eight (13%) had nonfluent
aphasia, and 15 (25%) had anomic, global, or transcortical aphasic
syndromes. Delusions were more common among patients with fluent aphasias
(58%), whereas depression was the most common psychiatric disorder among
patients with anterior lesions (63%). Elation occurred in 12 patients, 11
with posterior lesions and 1 with a nonlocalizing syndrome.
Neuropsychiatric disturbances in patients with chronic aphasia syndromes
correlate with the type of language disorder and with the location of the
associated lesion.
