Investigators have compiled recommendations for non-pharmacological therapy treatments for persons diagnosed with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) in a recent article published in Brain Sciences.

The article offers an overview of the last two decades of behavioral research of persons with svPPA and the interventions that will likely be beneficial as treatment options. The authors suggested that future svPPA care should include a wide range of therapeutic options. Those options include compensatory approaches to support language difficulties — such as the use of external devices to aid in communication — and interventions to support activities of daily living. Researchers also recommended implementing svPPA-specific educational and support programs into care options, which will likely result in “improvements in confidence and well-being for both individuals with PPA and their caregivers.”

The article also highlighted the different impacts of left and right-sided brain atrophy within svPPA. Individuals with left-svPPA were found to demonstrate a weaker performance in verbal tasks compared to right-svPPA. In contrast, individuals with right-svPPA have shown greater impairment of non-verbal semantics.

Read the full Brain Sciences article here.